England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Clifton Hampden St Michael & All Angels

The Parish

The parish of Clifton Hampden lies in the extreme south of Oxfordshire forming an extensive part of the border with neighbouring Berkshire, a border, here, marked by the course of the River Thames. Clifton Hampden is a small and compact riverside village which lies around 3 miles east of the Berkshire market town of Abingdon. Clifton Hampden sits on the A415 road which connects Abingdon onwards towards Wallingford. The Thames performs an extensive westwardly meander here and Clifton Hampden, together with neighbouring Culham, occupy that insert into Berkshire's territory. Modern developments intrude slightly, the Oxford to London rail line cutting through the western portion of the parish. As a floodplain settlement Clifton Hampden would have had a mixed farming economy, pastures by the river and arable on higher ground. The Thames drains the parish eastwards, through the capital to reach the North Sea. Clifton Hampden is sited at around 50 metres above the sea in gentle countryside with local heights reaching around 80 metres towards the centre of the peninsula of land. Clifton Hampden was slightly smaller than many in the area, covering just over 1,200 acres it would have supported a population of close to 300 parishioners. Clifton Hampden merits no separate mention in Domesday Book.

The Church

St Michael & All Angels church sits perched upon a river-cliff high above the river and is perilously close to a sharp fall in height to that river. The church was extensively rebuilt in two phases, firstly in 1844, which constituted almost a rebuild, that work was extended in 1866 by a second restoration. As there was such extensive work done it is difficult to determine the original building. Prints show a small box topped by a wooden bellcote and Pevsner notes two 13th century lancets as well as one from the 14th, perhaps reused and indicative of a building of the Early English Gothic era. The remainder of the work is Victorian and makes for a picturesque building in a "theatrical" setting. There is parking on the southern side of the High Street where an elaborate lychgate grants entry. Five flights of steps rise to the church which is deeply enclosed within trees making for a subject best captured from the meadows below, a challenge indeed from within the grounds.