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

The Parish

The parish of Bampton lies in the extreme southwest of Oxfordshire forming a lengthy stretch of the county's border with neighbouring Berkshire, here formed by the course of the Thames. Bampton is located roughly 16 miles west of the county town of Oxford and sits on the A4095 road which links Witney with Faringdon in Berkshire. Bampton is a diminished market town, prosperous until the 18th century whence its trade was lost to both Witney and Faringdon. Today Bampton is a large village, the A4095 performs a right-angled bend through the heart of the village and most properties lie either upon it or in a series of lanes forming an easterly oblong. Bampton parish was one of the more extensive in its county and included the chapelry at Shifford which was licensed for marriages and will have its own page within this project, in addition to that chapelry there were further townships such as Aston, Brighthampton, Chimney, Lew, and Weald, of these both Aston and Brighthampton are substantial villages in their own right. Such was the area that early gazetteers estimate barely 28% of the parish population actually resided in Bampton. Whilst the market, which flourished through the early medieval and early modern eras before closing, has gone it has left a market cross to mark its former status. The town had a flourishing leather industry but this too has declined. The wider parish included a section of the navigable Thames so movement of mainly agricultural produce via that river would have employed a few, the main farming method would have been pastoral exploiting the rich loams formed on the Thames flood-plain. The course of the Thames is followed closely through the parish by the Thames Path National Trail with Tadpole Bridge Inn a welcome rest stop for weary hikers. A series of small brooks drain the parish into the Thames which passes eastwards through Oxford, Windsor and the capital before reaching the North Sea. Bampton is sited at around 70 metres above the sea, barely 3 metres higher than the river yet over 2 miles from it, land rises gently northwards reaching 100 metres just northwest of Brize Norton airbase. As already mentioned Bampton parish, including Shifford chapelry covered an extensive area, over 11,200 acres making the largest in its county, that acreage would have supported a population of a little over 2,700 parishioners. Even by Domesday times Bampton was already a major settlement of 89 households and large enough to sit comfortably in the largest 20% of settlements recorded by population. The lion's share of Bampton was held by King William with lesser shares with Robert d'Oilly, Bishop Odo and the Bishop of Exeter, the total assets of 33 ploughs, meadows and pastures and backed by 4 mils & 4 fisheries clearly made for a highly wealthy manor for its landholders. In addition to Bampton's contribution, Brighthampton contributed a further 10 ploughs, meadows, pastures and an additional mill whilst Weald also had 3 more ploughs.

The Church

St Mary's church sits on the western edges of Bampton accessed from the A4095 by both Church View and Church Street. In keeping with serving the largest parish in the county St Mary also is amongst the biggest in western Oxfordshire. It is also a church with a lengthy and complex history which dates back to the Norman period of the 12th century, indeed Pevsner points to stonework laid in a herringbone pattern and suggest it may be 11th century ot even earlier and Saxon work. Building scars indicate that the church may well have been in a layout with a western tower but in the late 12th century there was a change of heart and the church was extended westwards such that the tower became a central crossing tower as it is today. Several doorways remain from the 12th century Norman Romanesque period notably those of the vestry door of the chancel and one to the south transept. The church underwent its second remodelling in the late 13th century when the tower acquired its spire and upper stages, aisles were added to the 12th century nave and many of the windows were rebuilt in splendid Early English Gothic styling. Despite all of these changes further work carried on throughout the 14th century, the Decorated style western doorway and the chapel east of the northern transept being notable. Later work was restricted to the addition of a porch in the 15th century and the remodelling of the southern transept early in the 18th. The least said about the Victorian restoration of 1867 - 1869 the better, Pevsner terms it a "destructive restoration" which resulted in the removal of the clerestory and "scraped and purified" the interior. Where Church View meets Church Street there sits a triangular green with a few spaces for safe parking outside the wooden gates of the churchyard, once within  the few isolated individual trees are easily avoided and most aspects are available to the photographer.