England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Hillmorton St John the Baptist

The Parish

The parish of Hillmorton is the most easterly in its county of Warwickshire and forms a stretch of the border with neighbouring Warwickshire, it is also not too far away from Leicestershire. Hillmorton is located about 2 miles southeast of the industrial town of Rugby, indeed such is the latter's growth that it has expanded in recent times absorbing Hillmorton into its suburbs. Hillmorton in old maps is shown as a largely linear village lying mostly along the lane which parallels the route of the London to Birmingham railway with satellite groups of properties by the church and on the modern A428 road (Rugby to Northampton). At the time of this transcript Hillmorton would have been primarily a farming parish with early gazetteers estimating the methods as two parts pastoral to one arable. Today's Hillmorton is merely an easterly extension of thr town of Rugby, a commuter suburb with the historic village surrounded by much modern development. As already mentioned the modern development of the London to Birmingham railway and its sister but more early route, the Oxford Canal, both act to constrain the northern spread of Hillmorton. More ancient route-ways act also as borders, the Roman Watling Street granting the parish and county boundary a sharp linear eastern edge. A small tributary of the nearby Avon drains the parish northwestwards to meet that river which heads off westwards to eventually meet the Severn, turn southwards and reach the sea through the latter's estuary. Hillmorton is built upon a rising site, the church stands by river, canal and railway at 95 metres whilst the southwestern portion on the A428 is some 30 metres higher on ground that is the high point for some distance in this gentle terrain. Hillmorton parish was an extensive parish for a southern English rural parish, covering almost 3,500 acres it was twice the size of a more typical such parish and would have supported a population close to 950 parishioners as a consequence. Hillmorton was also large in Domesday times, large enough to place itself in the top 20% of settlements by population recorded in that book, shared by 3 landholders its assets 13 ploughs and extensive meadows were, however, more modest.

The Church

St John's church sits away from its village at the end of a lane, The Locks, that deteriorates into a footpath beyond the church and its substantial car park, the lane's name, of course, refers to the approach to the Oxford Canal and its attendant railway which lie just beyond too. St John's is a church built upon the cusp of the 14th century during the brief Transitional style's period when Early English Gothic transformed into the Decorated style. Whilst later changes made during the unusual period of the 17th century have acted to mask some of the 13th/14th century details substantial remains to so identify the church's origins. From that Transitional period the main pieces remaining are the western tower, in a deep red ashlar, the 5-bay arcades  and the windows of both chancel and northern aisle. Between 1609 and 1655 various changes were made largely to repair the earlier work affecting the northern aisle in 1609, the east end in 1640 and the tower in 1655, all these changes documented by dating plates. At the same time the church acquired a clerestory to improve internal lighting. The traditional Victorian restoration is passed over by Pevsner, it probably was from the early 19th century when the church also acquired its southern porch. At the end of The Locks a substantial car park allows a leisurely visit, the churchyard is opena dn relatovely uncluttered allow free rein to the photographer from all of the favoured aspects.