England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Budbrooke St Michael

The Parish

The parish of Budbrooke lies in central Warwickshire about a mile and a half west of the county town of Warwick. Budbrooke sits just a half mile west of the busy A46 road and is separated from Warwick by that busy dual-carriageway and the race course being otherwise almost contiguous with the expanding town. Once a small rural settlement Budbrooke has expanded greatly in recent times with extensive modern developments attached to what was little more than a hamlet. At the time of this transcript Budbrooke would have been a fairly typical farming community with a mixed farming regime in place. Modern developments have surrounded Budbrooke, the Grand Union Canal firstly cut through the parish aided by an extensive flight of locks; this was followed by the construction of the Warwick to Birmingham rail line, the Warwick Parkway station being within Budbrooke parish. In yet more recent times the modern M42 motorway skims past a little over 2 miles to the south which together with the Warwick bypassing A46 give Budbrooke unprecedented transport access. making it a sought after place to live. Budbrooke is drained by small tributaries of the nearby Avon which is soon reached, the latter reached the Severn and then the sea through the Bristol Channel. Budbrooke is sited at around 70 metres above the sea whilst land rises gently westwards, as climbed by the canal lock-flight, to reach local heights close to 120 metres. Budbrooke parish was one of the larger in its area, covering a little over 3,100 acres it would have supported a population of around 500 parishioners. In Domesday times Budbrooke was a middling sort of place, held  by one Ralph de Limesy it could offer 9 ploughs, the usual meadows and woodland but did possess a mill.

The Church

St Michael's church is set a little to the north of modern Budbrooke, on the eastern side of Church Lane and close to both rail line and canal. Whilst the church has early origins it has been much modified over the centuries with little surviving from the earliest dates. Notable exceptions listed by Pevsner include a blocked Norman Romanesque northern doorway of the 12th century whilst the chancel shows remaining lancet windows from the Early English Gothic style favoured in the early 13th century. All else is very much more recent; the western tower being replaced by the present version in 1668 was just the start of changes which followed throughout the Victorian period. Initial work in 1838 demolished much of the 13th century southern aisle and created both southern & northern transepts whilst further restorations took place in 1874 & 1882 even in modern times the interior was reordered in 1995. From church Lane a neat one-way system at the southern entrance leads to an extensive car-park making for a straightforward visit. Within the churchyard a few trees crows the favoured southeastern aspects restricting the views available to the photographer.