England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Wellesbourne St Peter

The Parish

The parish of Wellesbourne lies in southern Warwickshire not too far from its rather convoluted southern border with neighbouring counties. Wellesbourne is located roughly 5 miles east of the town of Stratford on Avon, sitting upstream of that town on the same river. Wellesbourne is a substantial village, almost a small town which consists of two distinct parts either side of the Avon and which sits just east, a bypass being followed, of the A429 which connects Warwick through to Moreton in the Marsh. Wellesbourne has always had leanings towards becoming a market town, a market was, indeed, granted by Edward 1st but that has lapsed as nearby Stratford & Warwick dominated the local area. Nevertheless Wellesbourne remains an important commercial centre with inns, shops and similar businesses abounding. The hinterland of the parish is dominated by farming with a mixed regime, at the time of this transcript, transforming into more arable in modern times. The Avon drains the parish westwards, joining the Severn at Tewkesbury it makes its way to the Bristol Channel through the latter's estuary. Wellesbourne is sited at around 40 metres above the sea but land rises gently but steadily southwards away from the river to reach almost 130 metres on nearby Long Hill. Wellesbourne parish was one of the most extensive in its county, covering over 4,500 acres it is more reminiscent of an upland northern parish in its extent, within that acreage it would have supported  just over 1,400 parishioners of which half would have been within the twin villages. In Domesday times Wellesbourne was held directly by King William and was one of the largest 20% of settlements recorded in that book, an impressive holding offering 38 ploughs together with extensive riverside meadows and woodlands.

The Church

St Peter's church sits within the northern portion of Wellesbourne, just inside the A429's bypassing route and set back behind the main street on the looping Church Street. Whilst the church has ancient origins, early gazetteers speak of a church that was partly Norman Romanesque and partly Early English Gothic, little of that earlier church remains after a thorough rebuild of the 1840s. A remnant, reused, is the early chancel arch which Pevsner dates to c1100 but all else is Victorian work. The exception to this rebuild was the western tower, a Perpendicular style work of the late 14th or early 15th century. The work of the 1840s was funded by local landowner Sir Charles Paulet and utilises a style typical of the slightly earlier Decorated period. Church Street forks off the main street and has ample street parking and a small parking area outside the churchyard gates. Sadly the church is set close to the southern edge of the churchyard removing that favoured aspect and making for a challenging piece to capture on a sunny day.