England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Southrop St Peter

The Parish

The parish of Southrop lies in the extreme southeast of Gloucestershire forming a short stretch of the county's border with neighbouring Oxfordshire. Southrop is located roughly 3 miles north of the Thames-side market town of Lechlade and stands a similar distance west of the A361 road which links Lechlade with Burford. Southrop is a mid-sized village which has most properties lying around an "X" shape of lanes, a main lane with 3 additional limbs headed off to the cardinal points. The village sits on the western banks of the River Leach and has many typical properties built of the local honey-coloured Cotswold limestone. Quarrying of that limestone was extensive and employed many, the remainder would have been engaged with rearing sheep for both wool and meat, today the farming is much more arable. The Leach drains the parish southwards meeting the Thames after a short distance to the southeast of Lechlade, the Thames, or Isis as it is also known in this reach, heads determinedly east through Oxford & Reading before reaching the capital and eventually the North Sea. Southrop is sited at around 100 metres above the sea, here the limestone beds are almost horizontal leading to fairly level ground at or slightly above that height for some distance. Southrop parish was typically sized for the area covering close to 1,400 acres and supporting a population of about 400 parishioners. Southrop is not mentioned specifically in Domesday Book.

The Church

St Peter's church sits on the eastern side of the village south of the lanes crossing the Leach and headed for Oxfordshire's Broughton Poggs. Access is via a narrow dead-end lane shared with the exclusive Thyme Hotel. St Peter is a time capsule of the earliest periods of stone-built churches, Pevsner tentatively dates the nave to c1100 and identifies herringbone masonry in the Saxon style in both its northern and southern walls. Within the 14th century northern porch there also lies a 12th century Norman Romanesque styled doorway with its tympanum showing incised diaper work. During the 13th century the church was donated to the Knights Hospitaller and the order rebuilt the chancel in the 13th century Early English Gothic style as well as adding the south transept in the Decorated style of the early 14th and the southern doorway to the nave. The 15th century and Perpendicular in style was a new 3-light west window taking advantage of the rebuilding of the nave western wall as the nave was increased in height. Victorian restoration came in 1896 which added the towering bellcote as well as restoring the church. Inside one of the delights is the font of c1180 which moved Pevsner to describe it as "one of the greatest treasures of the Cotswold churches", worth a visit in its own right. The hotel does not allow casual parking so on-street parking should be sought on the Broughton Poggs lane and visits made on foot, the short walk ends at metal gates and continues on gravel to the churchyard. Regrettably the southern aspects are impaired markedly by mature trees but views are available from the less favoured northern aspects.