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England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Warkworth St Mary

 

The Parish

The parish of Warkworth lies in the extreme southwest of Northamptonshire forming a section of the border with neighbouring Oxfordshire. Warkworth is located just 2 miles east of the Oxfordshire market town of Banbury and sits just over a mile south of the A422 road which connects Banbury with Brackley. There is very little to Warwkworth, just a collection of farms and cottage, indeed the parish was for many years largely moribund with its rather few parishioners attending nearby Middleton Cheney and the church in poor condition. Like many parishes in this area the economy was underpinned by farming, here a mixed farming regime would have been in place. Modern developments have come to the area, a branch railway line briefly connected Banbury with Brackley but that has since disappeared but the modern M42 motorway cleaves a path between the hamlet and its larger neighbour, Banbury. Small streams drain the parish into the nearby River Cherwell which heads to eventually join the Thames and thus enters the North Sea through the capital. Warkworth sits on the southern end of a ridge of higher land at 130 metres above the sea, the ridge ascends northwards reaching just over 160 metres to the west of Middleton Cheney. Warkworth's population may have been small but its parish was fairly extensive for its county, covering 2,900 there would, however, have been barely 50 parishioners. Warkworth is not specifically mentioned in Domesday Book.


The Church

St Mary's church sits, in fields, west of a lane which runs southwards from the A422 through the hamlet. Much of the church dates from the various rebuilding attempts made in Victorian times, major campaigns of the early 1840s and late 1860s have done much to restore the church to use. Fortunately enough remains of the original church to date the building to the first half of the 14th century showing the Decorated style of that period. The principal remaining original features are the basal part of the western tower, the three-bay arcades as well as scattered windows in both the southern aisle and southern transept. The church is accessed by a roughly surfaced track crossing open fields to a small parking area by church and accompanying farm, scattered trees mainly in the southeastern quadrant do somewhat restrict the angles available to the photographer.


The Records

Register No Covering Dates Deposited With Register Style Quality Standard Comments
1
3rd February 1814 - 26th October 1836
Northamptonshire Archives & Heritage - Reference - 341P/001
Standard Rose style preprinted and prenumbered Marriage register
Grade 1 Register - Few issues noted and a low likelihood of misreads
None


Banbury St Mary, Oxfordshire
Banbury St Mary, Oxfordshire
Chacombe St Peter & St Paul
Chacombe St Peter & St Paul
Banbury St Mary, Oxfordshire
Middleton Cheney All Saints
Banbury St Mary, Oxfordshire
Bodicote St John the Baptist, Oxfordshire
Adderbury St Mary, Oxfordshire
Kings Sutton St Peter & St Paul

Register Reference Date Groom Forename Groom Surname Groom Status Groom Abode Bride Forename Bride Surname Bride Status Bride Abode
1 03/02/1814 James Robert STUCHFIELD Single Hanwell, Oxfordshire Elizabeth ATKINS Single
2 23/03/1830 Charles BURGESS Single Middleton Cheney Mary Anne MAWLE Single
3 19/04/1832 Robert SIMMONS Single Middleton Cheney Keziah ELKINGTON Single
4 26/10/1836 William SANDFORD
Long Compton, Warwickshire Anne Catherine COULING

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