England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Barcheston St Martin

The Parish

The parish of Barcheston lies in the extreme south of Warwickshire, an area of complex county geography where fingers and detached portions of several counties interlock and intersect, an area where there was much change as a result of 1974 county boundary reorganisation. Barcheston, at the time of this transcript formed a stretch of the border with neighbouring Worcestershire. Barcheston is located less than a mile southeast of the small Worcestershire market town of Shipston on Stour and sits immediately across the River Stour from its larger neighbour. Barcheston is a tiny place, little more than a hamlet gathered on the eastern banks of the Stour amongst the water-meadows and sitting just south of the B4035 which connects Shipston on Stour with the Oxfordshire town of Banbury. As a riverside settlement Barcheston would have been dominated by pastoral farming a situation little changed today. The Stour drains the parish northwards the short distance to the Avon at Stratford Upon Avon whence it turns west to reach the Severn and thence the Bristol Channel. Barcheston is sited at around 70 metres above the sea, land rises eastwards to the dominant hill of the locality, Brailes Hill which tops out at 232 metres, a landmark hereabouts. Barcheston was a small parish, covering close to 1,550 acres it would have supported a population of just under 200 parishioners. In Domesday times Barcheston was equally small, held by William the son of Carbucion it could offer 6 ploughs, small meadows but did possess a mill.

The Church

St Martin's church sits just above the water-meadows in parkland like surroundings just west of the out-and-back lane that accesses Barcheston. The church is notorious for its leaning northwestern tower which is as a result of the slughtly marshy ground chosen as a build site. The church has remnants of 12th century Norman Romanesqu work but the majority of the building is 13th century, a mixture of the Early English Gothic and the later Decorated styles.As is often the case the doors are the earliest feature and late 12th century. The basic structure is 13th century whilst the top stages of that tower have been modified in the 15th century. It is clear that additional buttressing was also added in the 15th century to combat the settlement that was already beginning. A scatter of 16th and 17th work can also be found mainly the replacement of individual windows, the major work being the creation of the southern chapel during the 16th. Victorian restorations in 1840 and the late 1860s complete the work. St Martin is tucked away behind fronting properties and accessed by a gravel track, the churchyard is nfenced with very few obstructions to photography.