England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Oxford St Peter le Bailey

The Parish

The city of Oxford, the capital of its county of Oxfordshire, actually sits on the ancient border of the county with neighbouring Berkshire. St Peter le Bailey's parish is merely one of 15 into which the ancient city is divided. St Peter le Bailey forms part of the western area of the ancient medieval centre of the city and also that portion of Oxford east of the Thames, the parish is a small area immediately north and east of the castle and west of the Carfax Oxford's central meeting point. Oxford is, of course, famous for its university and other public buildings, the so-called city of dreaming spires. Oxford lies about 55 miles northwest of England's capital of London. The city stands on the conjunction of the Thames with a major tributary, the River Cherwell. The city of Oxford has ancient origins although its name indicates a Saxon foundation and is literally the place where oxen forded the Thames. It was this crossing point which eventually became the crossroads for the A40 & A34 roads which lead to Oxford's growth. Granted its market in the 12th century Oxford grew to become one of the major cities of southern England, at times rivaling London as a centre for the crown. Oxford is sited at around 60 metres above sea level, St Peter le Bailey's church is also at that height. Oxford's parishes were typically small, only covering the area of a few hundreds of metres in any direction. The city would have had a population of around 22,000 at the time of this transcript and St Peter le Bailey's  parish was a middling parish within that total supporting around 1,300 parishioners, the volume of marriages recorded at this parish church is way beyond that to be expected for such a population being more typical of one with around 2,300. In Domesday times Oxford received 13 mentions, the King, himself, being the principal landowner. As an urban centre it was deficient in the usual agricultural features but still a great source of revenue for the crown. 

The Church

St Peter le Bailey's church is actually the chapel of St Peter's College and sits on the western side of New Inn Hall Street. This is not a medieval church nor is today's building that in which these marriages took place as it was completed in 1874. The building was clearly of little architectural interest to Pevsner as his account is a terse 3 lines of tect serving only to favourably comment upon the tracery of the tower's bell openings. The church stands cheek-by-jowl with other college buildings presenting only a limited frontage to the photographer, an unsatisfactory location and difficult to encompass fully.