England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Oadby St Peter

The Parish

The parish of Oadby lies in southern central Leicestershire roughly 3 miles southeast of the county town of Leicester. Oadby sits on the A6 road which connects Leicester through to Market Harborough and Northampton. Oadby is a much changed place. early maps show a rather linear small village stretching along the A6 for roughly a quarter mile either side of St Peter's church, the village was surrounded by open countryside under farms. Today Leicester has expanded such that it has engulfed Oadby turning this once separate village into a suburb, as such Oadby marks the southeastern corner of a conurbation stretching for over 7 miles in diameter, slightly wider from west to east than it is from north to south. At the time of this transcript Oadby would have been engaged in both farming, with a mixture of both pastoral and arable methods in place, and the ubiquitous industry of the East Midlands, Frame Work Knitting which employed many of the congregation and usually on a piecework basis. Modern developments surround the parish, the A6 is an urban dual-carriageway, Leicester's Race Course lies to the west and to the northeast is Leicester's Airport. The town, for that is its size today, also accommodates many of the city's university facilities including a  large hall of residence complex. Most of the original village centre has also been redeveloped as a modern shopping centre leaving St Peter surrounded by commercial premises. A small stream, which crosses the racecourse, drains the parish westwards to meet the Soar to the southwest of Leicester's ring road, the Soar heads generally north to meet the mighty Trent midway between Nottingham & Derby, from here it is east and then north again to reach the North Sea through the Humber Estuary. The ancient centre of Oadby stands at around 110 metres above the sea, the airport runways at 140 metres are more or less the highest point around in gentle terrain. Oadby parish covered just under 1,900 acres and would have supported a population of close to 1,050 parishioners at the time of this transcript, many thousands more today. At Domesday times Oadby was recorded in a combination of manors such that it cannot be determined its exact assets, the whole was held by Countess Judith and collectively was a top 20% settlement.

The Church

Where once St Peter's church marked the centre of this village it now bears the indignity of sitting on what amounts to a triangular traffic island with the busy dual carriageway passing to its east and two branches of Wigston Road enclosing it. Externally the church appears to date from the first half of the 14th century but there parts earlier revealed by Pevsner's forensic examination. The western tower, below the bell-stages, is largely in the 13th century Early English Style and certainly earlier than c1300. Of similar age is southern aisle also of c1300 so perhaps best termed Transitional. Whilst the nave and chancel were perhaps originally in the Decorated style, the latter was rebuilt and the former extensively modified in the later Perpendicular period. The 4-bay arcades are predominantly Perpendicular and that typical feature of the era, a clerestory, is of similar vintage. The rebuilding of the chancel and the general restoration of the remainder came in a typical Victorian manner in 1888. Given the urban situation the parking for this church can be problematic, the church hall centre has a few spaces for the really lucky whilst otherwise it is best to find a nearby side street and approach on foot. The main approach is from due south where topiaried conifers line a pathway. Unfortunately the triangular churchyard is a little too compact without use of a fish-eye to encompass the church so the better views are from the nearby roads, beware the busy traffic.