England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Ramsbury Holy Cross

The Parish

The parish of Ramsbury lies in the extreme northeast of Wiltshire forming a short stretch of the county's border with neighbouring Berkshire. Ramsbury is located roughly 5 miles northwest of the Berkshire market town of Hungerford and lies a mile west of the B4192 road which links Hungerford with Swindon. Ramsbury is a large village or perhaps a small town lying on the northern banks of the River Kennet, much of the village is confined to a stretch of about a half mile either side of the church, to the east lies the New Town which rises northeastwards from the river as a largely modern development. Within the large parish there are subsidiary hamlets at Axford, over 2 miles westwards, and at Whittonditch, on the B4192 to the northeast. To the west of the village lies the estate and parkland of Ramsbury Manor, originally the site of the 10th century medieval palace of the Bishops of Salisbury, that edifice being replaced in the late 16th century by today's splendid house. Ramsbury sits almost on the eastern edges of the Wiltshire chalk downs, to the east the Thames Vale spreads out onto more recent and less fertile geology. To the west chalk abounds and would have largely been the home of sheep prized for the wool that built the prosperity of towns such as Marlborough and Hungerford, to the east a mixture of arable, pastoral and managed woodland would have pertained. The village would almost certainly have also contained a substantial weaving industry until mechanisation of northern factories cut this industry's profitability to near nothing. Ramsbury is drained eastwards by the Kennet which flows into the Thames at Reading, the Thames passes through metropolitan Greater London before reaching the capital and the North Sea through its estuary. Ramsbury is sited at between 120 metres above the sea at the church and 150 metres to the northeastern extremity of New Town, land rises northwards away from the Kennet in chalk downs rising to 222 metres on the top of Ewin's Hill. Ramsbury was one of the most extensive parishes in its county, covering a little over 9,700 acres it is more typical of a northern upland parish in size, that acreage would have supported a population of close to 2,500 parishioners of whom almost 70% lived in Ramsbury, itself. With Ramsbury being the 10th century home of the Bishops of Salisbury it is not surprising that it easily qualified as a member of the top 20% of settlements by population in Domesday Book, the Bishop of Salisbury was it landholder and its assets were formidable, a stunning 54 ploughs were returned together with extensive meadows, pastures and woodland the whole back up by no fewer than 10 mills making Ramsbury one of the wealthiest rural holdings in the land.

The Church

Holy Cross church sits in the heart of the village to the north of the High Street but tucked away behind the fronting properties of that street's northern side. The earliest parts of the church are 13th century, the chancel being the principal feature of the Early English Gothic era. Evidence for this style shows in the pointed priest's doorway, the double-chamfered chancel arch and the roll-moulded trefoiled piscina. Also 13th century Early English Gothic are the first 2 easternmost bays of the nave and the southern doorway. The western end of the church, both the 2 westernmost bays of the nave and the blocky western tower are later than the eastern end and from the Decorated style of the first half of the 14th century. The western tower is an impressive piece of masonry complete with massive buttresses forming its corners and reaching almost to the battlemented top. The moulded western doorway and western window convey the Decorated styling rather well even if the top most bell stage is probably a Perpendicular completion. In addition to the nave's western bays the aisles demonstrated Decorated styled windows although they are caveated given the aisles' extensive restoration. More Perpendicular features are found in the northeastern chapel and in the nave's clerestory, the latter showing the former roof line as a a building scar. The typical Victorian restoration ran from 1890 - 1893 and rebuilt the aisles, replaced the southern porch and added the battlementation to the main body. To the north of the High Street, where a roughly surfaced small car park sits, the lychgate granting entry to the churchyard may be readily seen, once within you find and extensive churchyard dotted with clumps of trees, that to the southeast of the church proves the most frustrating for the photographer most of the rest being easily avoided.