England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Pishill Parish Church

The Parish

The parish of Pishill lies in the extreme southeast of Oxfordshire, separated from neighbouring Buckinghamshire by a narrow detached strip of Pyrton parish. Pishill is a tiny place, a few farms and cottages, high on the Chiltern range, with no defined village as such, the hamlet can be found roughly 6 miles north of Henley. Pishill's notional centre sits on the B480 road which crosses the Chiltern Hill from Henley to Watlington. Pishill's economy would have been dominated largely by sheep rearing, the thin soils of the chalky hills being unsuitable, at the time of this transcript, for arable crops; today more has turned arable with the advent of modern machinery & fertilisers. Pishill's main claim to fame today is as a hub for the many local hiking paths which criss-cross the area, the churchyard making a welcome spot for a lunchtime sandwich. As the parish sits on porous chalk there is little or no surface drainage with most water making its way sub-surface westwards to the Thames from whence it passes through the capital to the North Sea. Pishill is sited at approximately 110 metres above the sea, the dip-slope of the chalk rises steadily westwards to reach local high spots of 230 metres before plunging in the Vale of Oxford. Pishill parish was one of the county's smallest, covering just under 800 acres it would have supported a population of close to 150 parishioners. Pishill is not specifically mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

Pishill's parish church (it has no known dedication that I have been able to determine) sits just south of the B480 on the footpath that heads southwards towards Bix and is followed by the local Oxfordshire Way trail. Sadly the Norman church which once stood here was demolished and replaced subsequent to this transcript by a Victorian replacement built in 1854. The earlier church was not of national interest but nevertheless was a historical treasure from early times, the replacement is clearly of little architectural interest for Pevsner as his account is a mere 5 lines of text. The typical nave and chancel is augmented by a northern transept with a small belfry at the western end, the windows largely follow the lancet style of the Early English Gothic period. Church Hill is surfaced with a broad grassy verge on its western side allowing careful parking outside the typical brick-topped flint wall surrounding the churchyard, whilst this has many trees they are focused to the church's north allowing the favoured aspects for the photographer.