England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Wormington St Katherine

The Parish

The parish of Wormington sits in the extreme north of Gloucestershire not too far from the county's border with neighbouring Worcestershire. Wormington is located roughly 5 miles south of the Worcestershire town of Evesham and sits just under a mile east of the B4078 road which links Evesham with Winchcombe. Wormington is a small riverside settlement sitting on the eastern banks of the River Isbourne, it sits on the plain below the northern edges of the Cotswold range. Wormington is a farming parish with pastoral methods dominant, the rich pastures ideal for raising the dairy cattle behind Double Gloucester cheese. Wormington is drained northwards by the Isbourne which meets the Avon in Evesham, here water turns westwards until the Severn is reached where it turns back south to reach the sea through the Bristol Channel. Wormington is sited at around 50 metres above the sea, to the west the isolated twin knoll of Dumbleton & Alderton Hills top out at 203 metres whilst the Cotswold ridge touches 300 metres at its closest points. Wormington parish was possibly the smallest parish in its county covering only 539 acres and supporting barely 50 parishioners. In Domesday times Wormington was equally small, held by Roger de Lacey it offered just 4 ploughs, a small meadow but did have a mill.

The Church

St Katherine's church sits on the northern side of the village's Main Street set back a little behind a broad green and the driveway to Manor Farm. Pevsner starts his account by accurately describing the church as "small and very pretty". Most of the church's fabric dates from a Perpendicular rebuild which is dated by documentary sources as completed in 1475, the style certainly conforms with that dating. Evidence of an earlier church remains despite that thorough rebuild as 12th century Norman corbels sit below the bell-turret. The nave has both northern and southern aisles and 3-bay arcades all from the later Perpendicular period of the 15th century. Since that rebuild in medieval times the bell-turret has been added, its date estimated at c1800, it is neatly weatherboarded and carries a little spike, at the same time the western wall was remodelled. Two further phases of modern restoration are documented that of 1884 being largely erased in the more sensitive version of 1926. Main Street is of sufficient width to allow parking alongside the green that fronts the church, the shared drive of Manor Farm leads to wooden gates for entry. There are a few trees south of the church and the western end is tight to the churchyard boundary, these limit the options for the photographer.