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

The Parish

The parish of Warmington lies in the extreme southeast of Warwickshire forming a stretch of the county's border with neighbouring Oxfordshire. Warmington is located roughly 6 miles northwest of the Oxfordshire town of Banbury and stands on and mostly east of the B4100 road which links Banbury with the A425 and on to Warwick. Warmington consists of a rough oval of lanes which descend the steep escarpment of Jurassic strata which forms a prominent feature of the area's landscape. The village is constrained westwards by the B4100 descended onto the plain below. The parish is thus a mixture of land formed on hard "Horndon Stone", mainly pastures for sheep, whilst to the northeast clays and silts provide richer pastures for cattle. In more modern times arable has crept steadily into the farming mix. Horndon Stone is an iron-rich limestone which would also have been quarried for building stone and gives the characteristic Cotswold picturesque feel to local properties. Modern developments have come to the area, just northeast of the village the modern M40 carries heavy traffic from Birmingham to Oxford and on to London. Small brooks drain the parish southeast towards the River Cherwell which takes water southwards to eventually meet the Thames at Oxford, from here the latter heads east through Reading & Windsor to the capital and the North Sea. Warmington is sited between 130 & 180 metres above the sea rising up the escarpment, to the northwest Edge Hill reaches 217 metres at the Iron Age hill fort of Nadbury, the highest local spot. Warmington parish was typically sized for the area covering just under 1,800 acres which would have supported a population of close to 500 parishioners. In Domesday times Warmington, held by the Count de Meulan, recorded 59 households, just sufficient to place it into the top 20% of settlements by population, its assets of 16 ploughs backed by a small meadow betray a typical mid-sized farming manor.

The Church

St Michael's church stands on the brink of the escarpment's edge on the eastern side of the B4100 as it plunges down the hill onto the plain below, the setting gives it commanding views across the clay-rich plain below encompassing both counties. The church owes its origins to the 12th century when a basic Norman Romanesque church would have stood here, the core of the nave together with the nave arcades retain much of this period, the northern & southern arcades differ in age but Pevsner was undecided on which came first. In the late 13th century the southern aisle together with the southern doorway was added in a modest expansion, the early 14th century, however, saw a much greater increase in the church's footprint with the addition of the chancel in the Decorated style, a matching northern aisle and a northwestern vestry. Through the late Decorated era into Perpendicular the western tower was built in a mixture of the two styles. Two Victorian period of restoration are recorded, that of 1866 targeting the chancel whilst the second, on 1871, was a more general refresh for the church. The B4100 is a busy and fast road with traffic emerging from the climb with limited visibility, it is fortunate that a small layby on the eastern side has been created for parking, it is only really accessible from the northern carriageway. The churchyard stands a great height above the road on its northern edges (the junction with Church Hill) the B-road climbing still such that from the layby a gently rising path leads into the churchyard. The favoured aspects are totally available but views of the western tower are compromised by the abrupt fall away westwards to the road.