England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Woodston St Augustine

The Parish

The parish of Woodston lies in the extreme north of Huntingdonshire forming a stretch of the county's border, here formed by the course of the River Nene, with neighbouring Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire is also not too far away to the east. Woodston is located immediately across the Nene from the city of Peterborough and stands on the A605 road which links Peterborough with Oundle. Woodston is a much changed place, early maps show a linear settlement spread either side of the parish church but extending only for a few hundred yards to west and east. The parish was overwhelming arable with early gazetteers estimating roughly 4:1 in favour of arable over pastoral. In addition to the income fro farming there was a profitable wharf sitting upon the Nene, controlled by the Abbot of Thorney Abbey in enabled the avoidance of taxes payable in Peterborough. From the later 19th century Woodston has become engulfed within Greater Peterborough as an industrial suburb dominated in turn by a brick-works and subsequently by a sugar-beet factory (now closed), it has been enclosed within the modern development of the city's outer ring-road and is merely one of many suburbs for this rapidly expanding urban area. Other modern developments have come to the parish with the railway line between Peterborough & Northampton passing through on the banks of the Nene, which is navigable and much frequented these days with pleasure craft and narrow boats, the line may have closed but has reopened as the Nene Valley Heritage steam line. Woodston is drained eastwards by the Nene which turns north to The Wash and thus to the North Sea. Woodston is sited at around 10 metres above the sea in generally flat terrain where only a few spots exceed that height for many miles. Woodston parish was small in extent covering only a little over 1,000 acres, it would have supported a population of close to 250 parishioners. Thorney Abbey helf Woodston from Domesday times when it was a small rural manor offering 6 ploughs backed by typical meadows & woodland.

The Church

St Augustine's church once stood at the heart of the small village on the southern side of the A605 (Oundle Road), today it is surrounded by modern developments with little surviving of the early village. The great shame of St Augustine is that it was allowed to fall into a semi-ruinous state in the early 19th century and thus required extensive restoration & rebuild to maintain it as a house of worship. As a consequence we have lost most of what was a very early church originating in the Saxon period. Thankfully small fragments have been preserved within the fabric of the western tower which also has a double-splayed window and is probably late 11th or early 12th century, the bell-openings are more certainly 12th century being Norman in style. Also original is the south window of the southern transept but here it is lancet and dateable to c1300. Following the ruination the church was extensively rebuilt in 1844-45 which beyond rescuing the church from demolition also added the northern arcade. Further work was needed in  1884 when the aisles were widened and the vestry & organ chamber were added, finally in 1896 the chancel was extended to complete the resurrection of the church. The A605 is a busy main road with no on-street parking but opposite the quieter road of Swain Court can provide. The photographer faces twin obstacles with close set buildings in the form of a supermarket whilst the churchyard has a frontage beset with trees, there are views from the south but little can be seen of that early tower.