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

The Parish

The parish of Swinbrook lies in western Oxfordshire roughly 6 miles northwest of the market town of Witney. Swinbrook sits about a mile north of the busy A40 road which connects Oxford with Cheltenham and sits on the northern banks of the River Windrush. Most of the properties in the village, a picturesque place featuring the local stone, line a wriggling lane that climbs the northern slopes of the Windrush's valley, the lane eventually leading to Shipton under Wychwood. Whilst the Windrush provided power for a mill the emphasis in the local economy would have been on farming, the clay-rich soils deterred arable to some extent but there was nevertheless a mixed regime in place, today moving more to arable thanks to modern machinery. Swinbrook is drained eastwards bu the Windrush which passes through Witney before turning south to meet the Thames, the latter heads through Oxford and the capital to meet the North Sea. Swinbrook occupies a sloping site rising from 90 metres at the river to 110 metres at its northernmost point, beyond the Windrush's valley land rises to 187 metres at the local high point of Shipton Barrow to the north. Swinbrook was one of its county's smaller parishes, covering a little over 1,100 acres it would have supported a population of around 200 parishioners. In Domesday times Swinbrook was equally small and rural, held by one Geoffrey, of whom little is known, it could muster just 2 ploughs in addition to some meadows & woodland.

The Church

St Mary's church sits on the western side of the main lane as it rises through the village. St Mary is a church older than it initially appears, as Pevsner points out externally it is a fairly typical church of the 14th century showing a mixture of the Decorated & Perpendicular styles of that century, internally, however, a more complex history is outlined. The earliest date to which Pevsner assigns is that of the northern arcade which shows a style from that brief period, the Transitional, it flourished in the period of the turn of 12th into 13th centuries and few churches show much of its era. Its opposite number, the southern arcade, is slightly later and of the 13th century Early English Gothic in full. As already mentioned much of the church is 14th century, the earlier Decorated style is shown by the southern porch and by the windows of the nave's southern face. The eastern end, the chancel, is of the later Perpendicular style and shows a fine window of that style with panel tracery which almost fills the eastern wall. In typical style the clerestory was also added in Perpendicular style later in that century. The rather idiosyncratic western tower is actually the latest major piece to the church having been added in 1822. There appears to be little work by the Victorians in this instance to mar the dating detail. Whilst the passing lane is narrow careful parking should be safe enough. The churchyard is raised quite above road level with a dog-legged set of steps rising into it, once within there are no obstacles for the photographer.