England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Tytherington St James

The Parish

The parish of Tytherington lies in southwestern Gloucestershire about 6 miles north of the market town of Yate. Tytherington sits, in lanes, around a mile and a half east of the A38 road which connects Bristol with Gloucester. Tytherington is a mid-sized village sitting on a low knoll of ancient limestone which stands above the low-lying vale fringing the nearby Severn. The limestone was extensively quarried and has partially destroyed Tytherington Castle, actually an iron-age hill-fort which stands to the southwest of the village. Besides the quarrying activities Tytherington would have been primarily a pastoral farming village exploiting the rich soils of the eastern portion of the parish. Modern developments have come to the parish, a branch railway line constructed from Yate to Thornbury for many years served the quarries as a freight line and to the west of the village runs the modern M5 motorway. Tytherington is drained southwards by the Ladden Brook which heads deep into Bristol before meeting the Avon and thence to the Bristol Channel through the iconic gorge. Tytherington is sited at around 70 metres above the sea with the ridge running to just over 100 metres in places nearby. Tytherington parish was fairly typically sized for its area, covering close to 2,100 acres it would have supported a population of nearly 500 parishioners. In Domesday times Tytherington was a relatively small and inconspicuous holding of the Bishop of Exeter supporting just a pair of ploughs and some meadows and woodland.

The Church

St James' church sits at the heart of Tytherington on the northern side of the main junction of lanes at the foot of Stowell Hill Road. Following the standard layout of nave, chancel and western tower the church is augmented with both northern & southern aisles, a southern porch and a southern chapel. The fabric consists of three distinct ages, the basal fabric is 13th century and Early English Gothic in style. However, the church was substantially remodeled in the late 14th and early 15h centuries in the Perpendicular style. Finally the church received an extensive restoration by the Victorians in 1884 at which point the chancel arch, the core of a church, was rebuilt. The church sits in a slightly elevated position with the edge of the churchyard a low banked wall. A triangular green faces the junction with parking outside the entrance. The extensive churchyard is relatively free of photographic obstacles.