England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Alveston St James

The Parish

The parish of Alveston lies in southwestern Warwickshire. There is a difference of opinion between the two main sources of parish mapping, Phillimore claims a stretch of Loxley parish separates it from neighbouring counties whilst Cockin's more detailed mapping shows it forming two short stretches of the county's border in this area of fretted county boundaries, one with Gloucestershire, the other with Worcestershire. Alveston is located roughly 3 miles northeast of the literary town of Stratford upon Avon and sits immediately north of the B4086 road which connects Stratford with Wellesbourne following the southern flood plain of the River Avon. Alveston is a mid-sized and compact village formed by a triangle of lanes which head out-and-back northwards from the B4086, it sitting within a meander of the river the northern edges are curved like the river's course. The village's position on th edge of the flood plain enabled a little variation in the farming with roughly 20% of the parish acreage, as estinated by early gazetteers, being pastures whilst the rest is typical arable. The Avon drains the parish westwards to meet the River Severn and thence turning south to eventually meet the latter's estuary. Alveston is sited at around 40 metres above the sea in gentle terrain which rarely rises much over 50 metres until the isolated and long-barrow topped hill of Long Hill some 3 miles to the south which reaches 129 metres. Alveston parish was fairly large, as are many in this part of the county, covering close to 2,700 acres it would have supported a population of around 800 parishioners. Alveston's entry in Domesday Book indicates a much more important place than today's village, its population being sufficient to place it amongst the top 20% of settlements recorded, held by the Bishop of Worcester its assets were impressive too, some 24 ploughs were augmented by acres of meadow and no fewer than 3 mills.

The Church

St James' church sits on the southern edges of the village in the junction of Church Lane and the delectably named Kissing Tree Way, who knows the origin of that name but pleasant it is indeed. Sadly today's church is not the venue for these marriages having been built and completed in 1839 to replace a medieval predecessor. The build was extended by the unfortunate financial difficulties of the original architect and designer. The replacement church is built in a mock-Early English Gothic style making use of the characteristic lancet windows favoured by that styling. Despite the relatively late build two phases of modifications are recorded by Pevsner; the 1839 chancel was replaced by a longer version, part of a complete redesign of the church's eastern end, in 1876 and in an extended phase from 1903 - 1906 much work was done on the internal decoration & ceilings. Even as recently as 1989 the western end was "re-ordered". Church Lane is of ample width to allow street parking outside the churchyard which is surrounded with a local stone wall. The favoured southern aspects are, however, marred by rows of trees leaving the northern views as the better views for the photographer and needing care on a sunny day.