England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Albury St Helen

The Parish

The parish of Albury sits on the eastern border of southern Oxfordshire forming a stretch of the county's border with neighbouring Buckinghamshire. Albury is located roughly 3 miles west of the market town of Thame and sits immediately south of the A418 road which links Thames with the M40 motorway. Whilst Albury grants its name to the parish it is the smaller of the two main settlements, a cluster of cottages around the parish church, to the west on the A418 sits Tiddington which has a small presence on the main road and also properties on lanes running to its north and south. Both settlements sit close to the southern bank of the River Thames a situation providing the parish with good riverside grazing to augment the usual arable of the area. Modern developments have come to the area, the railway line which linked Thame to Oxford is not closed with only bridges & cuttings remaining, to the south the M40 motorway just intrudes slightly into the parish en route from London to Birmingham. The Thames drains firstly westwards and then south to reach the Thames at Dorchester, here water turns back eastwards to pass through the capital to reach the North Sea. Albury is sited at around 80 metres above the sea with Tiddington some 20 metres lower, a few spots between Albury and Thames scrape over the 90 metre contour in relatively gentle terrain. Covering just under 1,200 acres Albury parish was typically sized for its area and would have supported a population of close to 250 parishioners. In Domesday Book both Albury and Tiddington are recorded with differing landholders but neither was large, combined they offered just 5 ploughs backed by small meadows.

The Church

St Helen's church sits at the eastern end of the tiny hamlet of Albury, beyond the church the way becomes a footpath used by the local Oxfordshire Wat Local Trail headed for Tetsworth. Sadly the medieval church which once stood here was demolished and replaced by today's church in 1830 thus only the final few marriages would have taken place in this building. The church is a simple aisleless building with the chancel lower than the nave and the western end topped off with  a square western turret carrying a pyramidal roof. Pevsner is clearly unimpressed with the quality of the architecture calling it both "insubstantial" and "unambitious" despite being built by an architect who wrote one of the defining text books on medieval church architectural styles. Despite the relative recent construction there has been time for a restoration, here it fell in 1891. The lane leading to the church is exceedingly narrow with a difficult turning area outside the gates, there are no sensible places to park elsewhere, the lane leaves the A418 and is signed prominently before crossing fields to the church, it is so little driven there is grass in the middle. Just before the apparent copse in which the church sits is a safer place for parking with a short walk. Whilst there are trees they are concentrated in the northeastern segment leaving adequate views for the photographer.