England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Oldberrow St Mary

The Parish

The parish of Oldberrow lay in the extreme east of Worcestershire projecting as a peninsula of Worcestershire land into Warwickshire and surrounded by that county on all sides except to the northwest, eventually this anomaly was removed by transferring the parish into Warwickshire. Oldberrow is located roughly 4 miles east of the expanded new town of Redditch and stands on the A4189 road which links Redditch with Henley in Arden. There is very little to Oldberrow, the church stands together with the moated site of Oldberrow Court an early medieval hall but most of the thin strip that forms the parish is farmland with dotted farms and cottages and no real village. The soils here were fertile and arable farming was the dominant economic force despite the relatively western location. Oldberrow is drained to the southeast by a small tributary of the River Alne which is soon met, the Alne eventually reaches the Arrow and then the Avon before joining with the great north to south course of the Severn headed for the Bristol Channel. Oldberrow is sited at around 90 metres above the sea in gently rolling terrain, to the south Round Hill reaching 141 metres marks the local high point. Oldberrow parish was rather small covering just under 1,200 acres and barely supporting 50 parishioners. In Domesday times Oldberrow was held by Evesham Abbey and was equally small with just some woodland and a few pigs as its assets.

The Church

St Mary's church stands at the junction of the A4189 with Oldberrow Lane and is set slightly into the latter lane. Today's church would barely be recognisable to the participants in these marriages, they would have seen "a small ancient edifice" as described in early gazetteers. Today's church was built on the same site and completed in 1876, Whilst this is a rebuild substantial elements of the original church were reused indicating the age of the medieval original. The chancel has 1 reset Norman 12th century window and 2 from the 13th century Early English Gothic era; the southern doorway is the 14th century Decorated style piece and the northern doorway the 15th century Perpendicular piece. Despite the modernity the combined nave and chancel with western timber bell-turret and shingled spire do present an attractive composition. The only major change since completion was the addition of the southern porch in 1881. Opposite to the entrance and on Oldberrow Lane there is a small layby for parking, the churchyard is unusual in being triangular with rounded corners and it has few obstacles for the photographer.