England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Wolverton Holy Trinity

The Parish

The parish of Wolverton lies on Buckinghamshire's northern edge forming a stretch of the county's border, here formed by the River Great Ouse, with neighbouring Northamptonshire. Wolverton is located about 4 miles west of the market town of Newport Pagnell and sits about a mile east of the A5 road linking Milton Keynes New Town with Northamptonshire's Towcester along the former line of the ancient Roman Road of Watling Street. Wolverton is a place transformed from the original settlement, early maps show a mere hamlet, Old Wolverton, gathered around the church and Ttich Manor, today Old Wolverton is a deserted settlement within the Ouse Valley Park. It was modern developments that launched the creation of what is now Wolverton a mile or so to the east. Firstly the Grand Union Canal was cut through between London & the Midlands but it was the railway decision to base their main works here simply because it was half-way between London & Birmingham that created what we see today as Wolverton. Prior to all of this development Wolverton in the form of the Old village would have simply been a rural farming community with grazing amongst the Great Ouse's water-meadows and arable fields on drier land. The railway works eventually covered almost 80 acres at its heyday and employed almost 4,000 swelling the population from around 400 to many times that figure. Further change was wrought in more modern times when the area was included within the New Town development of Milton Keynes becoming the northwestern of that modernistic urban area stretching over 7 miles from north to south and a similar distance east to west forming a rhomboid shape. Wolverton is drained by the Great Ouse which runs a long course generally east and north to eventually reach the North Sea through The Wash. Wolverton is sited at around 70 metres above the sea, terrain is difficult to envisage given the urban environment but generally rises away from the Great Ouse to a general height of around 100 metres. Covering just 1,000 acres Wolverton parish was toward the smaller end of the scale for its county with that acreage originally supporting a population of around 450 parishioners before the development. In Domesday times Wolverton was previously a large settlement with a population large enough to be recorded in the largest 20% of such settlements, held by one Mainou, a Breton, its assets of 24 ploughs, extensive meadows and 2 mills made it very wealthy indeed.

The Church

Holy Trinity church stands within the former footprint of Old Wolverton now within Ouse Valley Park, it is accessed from Old Wolverton Road by footpath. The church which now stands here is in fact only the venue for some of these marriages as it was completed in 1814 after a 5 year build, it replaced an earlier medieval version of which only perhaps the western tower remains otherwise there are no traces. The church is built in a Neo-Norman style and was an early example of that style which flourished more prominently in Victorian times. The extensive use of ashlar blocks gives, to my eye, a rather bland appearance offset by the flourished of the turrets and the big western portal. The western tower appears a more traditional styling and Pevsner speculates that it may be an earlier church's structure incorporated into today's church. The access route is signed with a small unobtrusive brown sign, a small car park sits just into the path. A short walk of less than 200 metres take you to the churchyard which is open and uncluttered with no obstacles whatsoever for the photographer.