England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Great Gaddesden St John the Baptist

The Parish

The parish of Great Gaddesden lies in western Hertfordshire in an area where county boundaries are convoluted and rather fretted, consequently the parish has count borders with both Buckinghamshire & Bedfordshire. Great Gaddesden is located roughly 4 miles northwest of the much-expanded former market town of Hemel Hempstead and sits immediately west of the A4146 road, it connects Hemel Hempstead through to Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire. Great Gaddesden sits within Hertfordshire's share of the Chiltern Hills and is a loosely aggregated village, there is a distinct cluster around the church with many more properties stretching along the hilltop lane to the northwest. Whilst today Great Gaddesden sits uncomfortably close to the vast suburbs of Greater London nevertheless it remains distinctly rural, the economy, underpinned by arable farming, being little changed from the time of this transcript. Great Gaddesden sits on the western slopes of the River Gade, once a noted chalk stream, which drains the parish southeastwards, joining in turn the Colne and Thames before passing through the capital and to the North Sea. Great Gaddesden is sited around 100 metres above the sea, at the Gade's crossing whilst on top of Piper's Hill properties are almost 70 metres higher, that 170 metre height being found at the tops of many of the nearby Chiltern hills. Chiltern parishes are often fairly extensive and, for a southern arable parish, Great Gaddesden was rather large in area, covering almost 4,100 acres it would have supported a population of close to 1,100 parishioners. In Domesday times Great Gaddesden was held by one Edward of Salisbury and was an equally middling sort of manor offering 12 ploughs, meadows & woodland and had a mill.

The Church

St John the Baptists' church sits within the valley and north of the lane that climbs Pipers Hill from the A4146, it sits off the pretty cul-de-sac of Church Meadow. The church has its origins in the 12th century but like most has been much altered along the way from its original construction. The Norman Romanesque style of the 12th century is shown to good effect in the chancel which, rather intriguingly, includes Roman bricks from yet more earlier days. A small lancet window in the chancel is indicative that it did not take long before changes were afoot, the arcades alongside the nave show the Early English Gothic style in their stiff-leaf capitals, even if Pevsner believes them rather over-re-tooled as he puts it. Other traces of the 13th century can be found in the northern aisle. The late Perpendicular period saw the next significant change when the chantry chapel was added to the northern aisle whilst the 18th century saw a further chapel, the brick-built Halsey Chapel was also added. Victorian and later restoration took place over 3 distinct phases, the first and major exercise, saw the western tower, complete with diagonal buttresses, battlements and northeastern stair-turret, completely rebuilt in the 1860s. Further work followed in the late 1870s which opened the chancel into the northern chapel whilst in the 1910s the roofing was addressed. Church Meadow turns off Piper's Hill within 300 metres of it leaving the A4143 and whilst the nice-looking parking area is for residents there is still adequate space around for careful street parking. Taking the left-fork one comes to a neat lychgate granting entry. whilst much of the churchyard is spacious and accommodating to the photographer, the western end and its tower is rather enclosed within trees making for a challenge in that area.