England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Chesterton St Giles

The Parish

The parish of Chesterton lies in southern Warwickshire roughly 5 miles southwest of the market town of Southam. Chesterton sits about a mile east of the B4455 road, which follows the line of the ancient Roman Road of the Fosse Way, which avoids all significant towns before finally meeting Watling Street as it forges a southwest to northeast course through the South Midlands. It is believed, from the "chester" in the name that Chesterton was founded in Roman times as a fort upon the Fosse Way. The village is unusual in having been considerably bigger than it is today, a mere scatter of farms and cottages with no real centre. The whole area is pocked with remains of its former status as a town with the mansion of the Peto family at its heart, all now disappeared save for sub-surface archaeology. Chesterton's extensive parish would largely have been used as a mixture of pastures and woodland all residing upon a clay substrate. Modern developments have come to the parish, the modern M40 motorway cuts through the area en route between Birmingham and Oxford but has no exit for Chesterton merely a roadside services. Chesterton has rather vague drainage which trends westwards as small intermittent brooks eventually consolidating into Thelsford Brook which feeds the Avon, the latter heads further westwards to meet the Severn which turns water south to the sea through the Bristol Channel. Chesterton is sited on rising ground with the Roman town on Fosse Way at 70 metres whilst the parish church is some 20 metres higher, southeastwards land gently rises to 125 metres above the sea on Christmas Hill near Bishops Itchington. As already mentioned Chesterton parish was extensive covering almost 3,600 acres and its much diminished population of close to 200 parishioners would have been supported. In Domesday time Chesterton recorded 55 households which is probably more than exist today and certainly large enough to place it into the top 20% of settlements by population, shared between 4 landholders it offered an impressive 20 ploughs backed by a series of small meadows.

The Church

St Giles' church stands today in splendid isolation overlooking a series of fish ponds left from the former Peto estate, it sits on a lane named "Old Fish Ponds" which, just beyond the church becomes a footpath headed for Christmas Hill. Pevsner's account of the church is lengthy as the development of the church is complex and has a number of puzzles. There is very early fabric from the 12th century embedded in both northern and southern walls of the nave but these are only tiny fragments. The northern doorway is more certainly 13th century from the Early English Gothic period whilst its southern equivalent is from the early 14th century Decorated era. Most windows are a mixture of both Decorated & Perpendicular styling from the typical late medieval church-building period. At the western end of the church is a squat tower from the 17th century whilst most of the eastern end is Victorian from a series of 19th century phases. Three main phases are documented, the first of 1862 being largely responsible for the eastern end, that of 1864 saw the chancel's southern windows completed whilst the third of 1884 added the continuous embattled parapet. The church is served for parking by broad grassy verges, the churchyard is above road height and a path slopes up to it, there are no obstacles whatsoever for the photographer.