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

The Parish

The parish of Gladestry lies in the extreme east of Radnorshire, indeed it forms part of the border with both neighbouring Herefordshire and thus with England. Gladestry is located about 4 miles southwest of the small Herefordshire market town of Kington and sits on the B4594 road which connect the A44 west of Kington with the A470 to the south of Builth Wells. Gladestry is a small and compact village sitting in hill country, the local hills being popular hiking areas, notably along the Offa's Dyke trail which passes through Gladestry. That monument built at the behest of the Mercian King Offa sought to provide a barrier protecting the English Marches from the Welsh, nowadays its a popular walking route. Given the strongly hilly nature of the terrain arable farming opportunities are fairly limited and pastoral grazing provided the main income of the parish. Gladestry is drained eastwards by the Gladestry Brook which shortly meets the Arrow then the latter joins the Lugg and finally the Wye before reaching the Bristol Channel through Chepstow. Gladestry is sited at around 230 metres above the sea, land is hilly to all sides, Hergest Ridge to the northeast rising to 426 metres and Colva Hill to the west to 532 metres indicating the nature of the terrain. Radnorshire parishes, being upland, are rather large and by those standards Gladestry was one of the smaller, it covered around 3,200 acres and would have supported a population of close to 350 parishioners. Like most of Wales Gladestry is not mentioned in Domesday Book despite adjacent Herefordshire manors being so listed, Offa's legacy was still a formidable barrier even to the Normans.

The Church

St Mary's church is located at the heart of the village, adjacent and slightly away from the B4594 at the start of dead-end lanes leading to hill-farms. The church clearly impressed Pevsner who described its as a "handsome church". The earliest part of the building is the nave, 13th century and showing the Early English Gothic style of that century. The chancel was rebuilt in the 14th century, widened to match the width of the nave, the Decorated style appeared in that portion. From the 15th century, and Perpendicular is the southern porch whilst the later windows in the chancel and the roof are later and 16th century. The restoration, familiar from so many churches, here took place in the 20th century in 1910 and was not overly destructive of early fabric. The church sits up a narrow lane from the B4594 and entry is through large wooden gates. The churchyard is relatively free from photographic obstacles making for a simple church to adequately capture.