England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Owthorpe St Margaret

The Parish

The parish of Owthorpe lies in southern Nottinghamshire not too far from its border with neighbouring Leicestershire. Owthorpe is situated about 8 miles southeast of the city of Nottingham. Owthorpe sits in lanes about a mile east of the busy A46 road which follows the ancient Roman Fosse Way and which forms the western boundary of Owthorpe parish, more modern communications are recorded in the route of the Grantham Canal which also passes through the parish. Owthorpe is a small and compact village sitting just north of a lane running eastwards from the A46. Owthorpe would have largely earned its living from agriculture and would have utilised a mixed farming regime, today with heavy machinery the clay-rich soils are increasingly turning to arable. Owthorpe is drained to the northeast by small headwaters of the River Smite, this joins the Devon and eventually the Trent close to Newark on Trent before reaching the North Sea through the Humber Estuary. Owthorpe is sited at around 60 metres above the sea and the landscape is gently undulating to almost 100 metres to the west. Owthorpe parish was medium sized for the area covering around 1,600 acres it would have supported a population of just under 150 parishioners. In Domesday Book Owthorpe was shared between three gentlemen, Geoffrey Alselin, Roger of Bully and Durand Malet, it could offer 7 ploughs and a small meadow.

The Church

St Margaret's church is tucked away behind farms to the northeast of the village centre and is accessible along a track running eastwards from Village Street. The church was largely rebuilt in the 17th century at the behest of the prominent local family, the Hutchinsons. The origins of the church are consequently largely lost were it not for the presence of reused material in the northern face where a 14th century origin is revealed. Otherwise the building is clearly of little architectural interest for Pevsner as his account is rather short. The track leads to the hedge churchyard which is small and almost oval-shaped, there are few impediments to photography.