England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Whittington St Bartholomew

The Parish

The parish of Whittington lies in central Gloucestershire about 4 miles east of the town of Cheltenham. Whittington sits on and immediately north of the A40 road which connects Cheltenham through to Oxford. There is very little to modern day Whittington, a cluster of properties by the A40, a few more by the grounds of Whittington Court and a subsidiary group on the lane which parallels the A40. It is likely that Whittington was a "closed parish" where all land was held by a single landholder who restricted inward migration thus a formal village never developed. Whittington Court is a 16th century moated manor site and the affairs of the estate probably dominated the local economy. A typical Cotswold landscape would have been dominated by grazing of sheep but the local limestone was good for building and extensively quarried for such use in this parish. Modern developments did temporarily come to this area with a rail line between Cheltenham and Bourton on the Water but it tunneled through Whittington parish and has now been dismantled. Whittington sits on a watershed between the waters of the Chelt heading westwards though Cheltenham to the Severn & the Irish Sea and the Coln which heads south and then east to join the upper Thames passing through the capital to reach the North Sea. Whittington is sited at around 180 metres above the sea but land rises to its north reaching 274 metres within a mile. Whittington parish was fairly typically sized for a Cotswold parish, covering just over 1,400 acres it would have supported around 200 parishioners. In Domesday times Whittington was an equally small place, held by one William Leofric it could offer just 6 ploughs, a small woodland but did possess a mill.

The Church

St Bartholomew's church sits on the western side of Whittington's main lane running north from the A40 and mere metres from that busy road yet is a tranquil setting immediately outside the estate grounds of Whittington Court. Despite the small congregation the church has ancient origins in the 12th century Norman Romanesque period even if much altered over the intervening centuries. Pevsner points to the southern aisle, a blocked Norman arch in the arcade and the western wall of the vestry as examples  of this early style. Work to improve the church was undoubtedly done in the early 14th century as a Decorated style east window survives but most work on the windows was done in the Tudor period of the 16th century. Two significant restorations followed in Victorian times, 1863 & 1872, to arrive at today's building. The church sits behind a low limestone wall screened by trees, a broad pavement allows cars to park safely. Sadly this is a cramped and confined churchyard with many trees making for a challenge to the photographer to adequately capture it.