England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Butlers Marston St Peter & St Paul

The Parish

The parish of Butlers Marston lies in southern Warwickshire, at the head of a peninsula of the county that penetrates southwards between Oxfordshire & Worcestershire. Butlers Marston is located about 8 miles southeast of the town of Stratford upon Avon. Butlers Marston is a small and compact village sitting around 1 mile south of the B4086 road which connects Wellesbourne with the Oxfordshire town of Banbury, around 2 miles west of the village runs the ancient Roman Road, Fosse Way which defines part of the western edge of the parish. Like many parishes in this part of Warwickshire Butlers Marston would have been, and still largely is, a farming community, a mixed farming regime in place on quite heavy clay soils. Butlers Marston is drained westwards by the River Dene, meeting the Warwickshire Avon to the east of Stratford thence to the Severn and the Bristol Channel. Butlers Marston is sited at around 80 metres above the sea, the land around the parish is gently undulating to local heights of close to 125 metres. Butlers Marston parish was fairly typically sized for this area of the county, it covered around 1,700 acres and would have supported a population of close to 300 parishioners. In Domesday times Butlers Marston was a holding of Hugh de Grandmesnil, a middling sized place offering 10 ploughs but did possess 2 mills.

The Church

St Peter & St Paul's church stands to the south of the village, across a small stream from the main body of properties. The church outwardly is a late church much modified by the Victorian restorers, however, internal examination reveals a much older origin. Pevsner notes that the 3 bay southern arcade shows rounded piers of a Norman Romanesque style of the 12th century. The southern arcade is also early and 14th century albeit remodeled in the 17th. The western tower, a rather blocky structure, is mediaeval of the Perpendicular style and probably 15th century. Within the Victorian era a major restoration of the 1860s saw the northern wall rebuilt, extensive restoration of the chancel and the addition of both vestry and the southern porch. A further restoration in 1891 modified the western tower to result in today's building. The church is reached from the lane (Kennel Hill) a few hundred yards east of the stream crossing, a signpost points the way to the church along a roughly surfaced lane crossing the fields. A rough parking area lies just east of the churchyard, the churchyard is narrow to the south of the church restricting somewhat the angles available for photography.