England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Cublington St Nicholas

The Parish

The parish of Cublington lies in the southeastern portion of central Buckinghamshire roughly 7 miles northeast of the town of Aylesbury. Cublington sits about 2 miles northwest of the A418 road which connects Aylesbury with the Bedfordshire town of Leighton Buzzard. Cublington is something of a curiosity as it is a village which has moved, a quarter mile west of the current small and compact crossroads village sits a Norman motte and gathered around the site is the humps and bumps of the ancient medieval Cublington. The castle which stood upon that motte has gone as has the village moving east for some inexplicable reason. Cublington sits on clay-rich Jurassic rocks which give heavy soils, the consequence in early times was largely pastoral farming in dominance, today, with the advent of modern machinery, the area has moved much more toward arable. Cublington sits on a significant watershed, water falling to its west heads via the Thame & Thames to the North Sea whilst that falling to its east takes the Ouzel and Great Ouse to the North Sea at The Wash. Cublington is sited 130 metres above the sea, at the watershed this forms the highest ground for some distance in gently rolling terrain. Cublington parish covers some 1,200 acres, slightly small for its area, that acreage supporting a population of close to 300 parishioners. In Domesday times what was presumably the old village was held by one Jocelyn the Breton its assets of 13 ploughs and a meadow being typical of such rural holdings.

The Church

St Nicholas' church sits west of today's village centre on the northern side of High Street and sitting opposite the Unicorn Inn. Today's St Nicholas is a replacement of c1400 for the previous church which stood by the motte in the abandoned medieval settlement. The 15th century is of course the time of the flowering of the Perpendicular style and that style dominates throughout the church. All is of that era as the church was clearly built in a single phase. Pevsner points out the interesting features which include blank-tracery of the southern bell-openings for the western tower and an unusual corbel for the chancel arch depicting a man & monkey. Typical Victorian restorations are noted for 1861 & 1887 but exact details are not given. High Street is amply wide enough for on-street safe parking outside the churchyard which is flanked by brick-walling topped by tile. A pair of wooden gates towards the western end grants entry to a churchyard which is open & uncluttered save for a line of mature trees immediately inside the southern wall, these take away the southeastern perspective but all other angles are available to the photographer.