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

The Parish

The parish of Crowell lies in the extreme east of Oxfordshire, indeed it forms part of the border with neighbouring Buckinghamshire. Crowell is located about 4 miles southeast of the market town of Thame. Crowell is a small place indeed, little more than a group of properties around a crossroads having inn and church, it sits on the B4009 road which runs along the base of the Chiltern Hills linking Watlington to Princes Risborough. The B4009 largely follows one of the routes of the prehistoric Icknield Way and the present day Ridgeway National Trail passes through the parish on a parallel line a half mile to the southeast. Crowell would largely have earned its living through arable agriculture at the time of this transcript and today little has altered. Crowell is drained by numerous small brooks heading northwest to form part of the Haseley Brook, this joins the Thame and then the Thames to reach the North Sea through the Thames estuary. Crowell is sited at around 110 metres above the sea, land undulates gently to the northwest at or about that level but to the southeast the Chiltern's escarpment rises dramatically to almost 250 metres. Crowell parish was small by the standards of the area, it covered just under 1,000 acres and extends on a northwest/southeast axis taking in a share of all the land types, the parish could support around 170 parishioners. In Domesday times Crowell was held by one William Peverel and could offer 7 ploughs as well as small woodlands and meadows.

The Church

St Mary's church (the full dedication being to the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary) sits close to the main junction of the B4009 with the lane running eastwards towards the Chiltern's, it sits on the eastern side of the B road adjacent to the Shepherd's Crook Inn. Sadly the church was rebuilt in 1878 but the rebuild did at least reuse some of the materials enabling Pevsner to hazard a guess as to the origins of the mediaeval church. He identifies the northern doorway as reused Norman work, the southern doorway as 13th century and most of the windows as being 14th century in style if reused. The church sits somewhat back from the road access being made at the western end of the site where a small car park sits. The site is small and compact with many trees somewhat restricting the angles available for photography.