England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Southoe St Leonard

The Parish

The parish of Southoe lies in southern Huntingdonshire not too far from its border with neighbouring Bedfordshire. Southoe is located roughly 3 miles north of the market town of St Neots and sits immediately west of the A1 (Great North Road) which connects London with the northeast. Southoe is a small village set within a cul-de-sac of lanes, in initial triangular stretch leads to a westbound lane that peters out at various farms most properties are grouped around the main junction where sits the church. Like many villages in eastern England Southoe would have been (and still is) largely an arable farming community; however, it sits on the western edge of the flood-plain of the Great Ouse which in the past would have provided pastures and in recent times has been extensively extracted for sands and gravel leaving flooded pits. Today, given the dual-carriageway of the A1 cuts the village off from the world, Southoe is a rather sleepy settlement despite the almost constant roar of nearby traffic. Small streams filter east the short distance to the Great Ouse which takes water northwards to eventually reach the North Sea through The Wash. Southoe is sited at around 20 metres above the sea in very gentle terrain, land rises gradually westwards away from the Great Ouse to reach close to 50 metres within a mile or two. Southoe parish was a fairly typically sized lowland rural parish, covering close to 1,500 acres it would have supported a population of around 300 parishioners. In Domesday times Southoe was an equally small rural settlement, shared by Eustace the Sheriff and one Fafiton's son Robert it could offer 8 ploughs, the usual meadows and woodland but there was a fishery, presumably exploiting the Great Ouse.

The Church

As already mentioned St Leonard's church sits at the heart of the village standing in the junction of High Street and Rectory Lane. Outwardly the church appears to be entirely from the Perpendicular era but closer examination by Pevsner reveals a much earlier story. The southern doorway is in the Norman Romanesque style and tentatively dated to c1100, internally the chancel arch is also dated to a similar style and period, whilst lancet windows within the chancel are late 13th century and of the Early English Gothic period. The church clearly was largely rebuilt in the great church-building era of the Perpendicular with the main body largely dating from this period. The rather striking nave, almost as wide as it is long, is walled in an attractive brown cobble which glows well in evening sunlight, its northern aisle, however, is of stone and given a firmer date of 1460 by Pevsner. Documentary evidence dates the construction of the tower to the early 16th century, donations dated 1505 & 1518 have been found, and its position, set at the northwestern corner is an unusual feature too. Contemporary with the tower a clerestory was inserted to improve internal lighting. For once Pevsner fails to mention any substantial Victorian restoration so if one occurred it was light and sensitive. High Street is sufficiently broad to permit parking outside the entry which is graced by a double-width lychgate. Once within there are no obstacles for the photographer.