England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Chalfont St Giles

The Parish

The parish of Chalfont St Giles lies in southeastern Buckinghamshire close to its border with neighbouring Hertfordshire. Chalfont St Giles is a large village sitting on the western banks of the River Misbourne, a chalk stream which cuts into the eastern flanks of the Chiltern Hills. Chalfont St Giles is located about 3 miles south the town of Amersham and sits a quarter mile west of the A413 which connects Amersham through to Uxbridge. Once a purely farming village, a mixture of arable and sheep grazing on the poor chalky soils, today Chalfont St Giles is something of a commuter village, trains running from nearby Beaconsfield and underground services from nearby Amersham encourage a community that lives in the countryside yet works in the city. Modern developments such as the nearby M25 motorway increase Chalfont St Giles' integration with the national transport network making for an attractive, if expensive, place to live. The Misbourne drains the parish southwards, joining the Colne north of Uxbridge, the latter meets the Thames at Staines and thence through the capital to the North Sea. Chalfont St Giles is sited at between 70 metres, by the Misbourne, up to 100 metres at the newer developments to the west, the Chiltern Hills, here relatively gentle rise to local heights of almost 170 metres to the northwest. Chiltern parishes tend to be quite extensive and Chalfont St Giles was one of those, covering close to 3,600 acres it would have supported a population of just over 1,200 parishioners. In Domesday times Chalfont St Giles was held by one Mainou le Breton and was a substantial place offering 15 ploughs, extensive woodland, populated by large herds of pig, and 3 mills

The Church

St Giles church is on the southern side of the High Street tucked away behind the shops and houses that line it. Whilst there are traces of a Norman origin to the building those that remain are slight, Pevsner cites the bases for the responds within the southern aisle as Norman Romanesque in style. The present building, however, has been much changed since those times and largely shows three successive centuries and styles within it. The chancel, of the 13th century but much restored, and Early English Gothic is followed by the southern aisle, 14th century and Decorated in style, finally comes the Perpendicular represented by the northern aisle, western tower & the clerestory. Extensive Victorian restorations in the 1860s were topped off in 1895 by adding the timber southern porch to complete the church. The High Street is broadened by the addition of The Green to its south which permits parking outside the business premises, at the western end of The Green a pathway leads through to the churchyard, there are few obstructions within the churchyard making for a simple subject to capture.