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

The Parish

The parish of Ashperton lies in eastern Herefordshire about 5 miles northwest of the market town of Ledbury. Ashperton sits astride the A417 road which links Ledbury towards Leominster and north Herefordshire, this road follows the line of an ancient Roman Road through the parish of Ashperton. Ashperton is small, not much more than a strip of farms and cottages until recent times when modern housing was built along Church Lane. The village would have largely been involved with pastoral farming at the time of this transcript - the famous Herefordshire beef industry - nowadays there is a more mixed regime as heavy machinery makes arable possible in the area. Ashperton sits at about 90 metres above sea level, to the north land falls away to the valley of the River Frome which flows to join the Wye. The parish was of a fairly typical size for this area - about 1,700 acres and it supported a healthy population of over 500 parishioners. In Domesday times the land was split between four landholders and supported 11 ploughs along with meadows and woodland.

The Church

St Bartholomew's church sits, appropriately enough, at the end of Church Lane, which heads for a short distance west of the A417. Pevsner places a date of 14th century on much of the fabric which places the building firmly in the main church building period. He does, however, note that there has been a radical redesign as the building formerly possessed a central bellcote which was removed and replaced by the present western tower by the Victorian restorers in the 1840s. The church was probably built or perhaps rebuilt contemporaneously with the castle remains of which lie to the west (here permission to crenellate was granted in 1292, a date broadly indicative of the church start date). St Bartholomew's sits at the very end of Church Lane, a parking area lies to the southern side, wooden gates giving access to the graveyard straight ahead. The site is mostly open only to the eastern side with neatly clipped but mature trees hemming in the building to west and north. This restricts photographic opportunities a little.