England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Bradden St Michael

The Parish

The parish of Bradden lies in southwestern Northamptonshire roughly 3 miles west of the market town of Towcester. Bradden sits a little over 2 miles west of the A43 road which links Northampton with Brackley. Bradden is a small and compact settlement with most properties lying along a narrow lane southwards from the parish church or in dead-ended side roads off of that lane. Bradden is a farming parish which sits on quite a clay-rich soil making it more suitable for pastoral rather than arable farming, early gazetteers estimated roughly 2:1 in favour of pastoral. In addition the local stone was quarried but only for mending the roads rather than as a building stone. Modern developments have come and gone from the parish, a branch railway line once joined Towcester to Banbury, passing through Bradden parish, but has been closed and largely dismantled. Bradden is drained eastwards by the River Towe which, after Towcester, turns southwards to meet the Great Ouse on the northern fringes of Milton Keynes, the Great Ouse has a long journey eastwards and then north through Fenland to meet the North Sea through the Norfolk port of King's Lynn and The Wash. Bradden is sited at around 120 metres above the sea in gently undulating terrain where local high spots just breach the 150 metre contour. Bradden was a small parish covering just over 1,000 acres which would have supported a population of close to 150 parishioners. Domesday Bradden was a modest rural farming manor shared between Rober de Bucy and David d'Argentan offering just 4 ploughs and some small meadows.

The Church

St Michael's church is the northernmost building within the small village sitting on the western side of Main Street at the end of a run of rather picturesque cottages. St Michael has tiny fragments of early masonry from the 12th century indicating that today's church is a re-working of a much smaller Norman predecessor, That 12th century building is solely represented today by a single pier which remains. That 12th century church was given a western tower in the Early English Gothic period of the 13th century. Despite being rebuilt c1700, as recorded in documentary evidence, it retains the lancet style windows characteristic of that period. It was during the 14th & 15th centuries that the main body of the church was expanded into today's layout and is Perpendicular in style, the original 12th century arcades being replaced by 14th century versions, 2 eastern bays were added and a western bay constructed. Pevsner is rather displeased by the scale of the Victorian restoration/rebuild which came in 1859 and thoroughly modernised the church giving it a decidedly Victorian external appearance. The churchyard sits behind a low picket fence with a sloping path rising gently into it from the last cottage, parking on the street is acceptable. There are few trees gathered around the western end restricting views of the tower but all other southern aspects are available to the photographer.