England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Twycross St James

The Parish

The parish of Twycross lies in western Leicestershire quite close to its border with neighbouring Warwickshire and also Staffordshire. Twycross is located about 6 miles east of the Staffordshire market town of Tamworth. Twycross is a small and compact village sitting on the A444 road which connects Nuneaton with Burton Upon Trent. The local economy at the time of this transcript would have been based upon pastoral farming, a land of hedges and gently rolling pastures. The parish is drained by small tributaries of the River Sene, this joins the Anker, Tame & then Trent to reach the North Sea through the Humber Estuary. Twycross parish was of a fairly typical size for a Leicestershire parish covering just over 1,500 acres it would have supported a population of around 350 parishioners. In Domesday times Twycross was held by one Henry of Ferrers and could offer just 7 ploughs.

The Church

St James' church sits on the southern side of twycross on the northern side of the A444, here called Church Street. The church is largely 14th century with nave and chancel, in the Decorated style, being slightly older than the western tower which is Perpendicular. The standard layout of nave, chancel & western tower is augmented by an arcade of four bays which is of similar age. The church was subject to a significant restoration in the 1840s but much of the original fabric remains detectable. A notable feature of the church is the stained glass of the eastern window, inserted as part of that restoration, it was believed to have originated in Sainte Chapelle of Paris and have been created in the 1240s. The glass was an apparent gift from King William IV to Earl Howe. Pevsner, however, reports the glass as coming from a number of sources including Saint Chapelle but with dating from a century earlier and being from Saint Denis. St James sits in a slightly elevated position with a local stone wall buttressing the elevated churchyard at slightly below shoulder-height. Access is by a metal gateway at the northwestern end of the site, the churchyard is relatively open and there are few obstacles to photography.