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Wroxhill Church


This church was probably a chapel of ease to the parish church of Marston and was dedicated to St Lawrence the Martyr. According to the Victoria County History, volume III, in 1286-7 John Hermer, who held the manor of Wroxhill jointly with Bernard de Willey, held ‘the advowson of the church of Wroxhill’.  

In 1460 the lord of the manor of Wroxhill, William Saunderton, released the parson of the church from any claims that he should find a private chaplain for three days a week in the chapel of St. Lawrence the Martyr near the site of Wroxhill manor. In Magna Britannia Lysons mentions that this chapel had once existed, but it had disappeared by the time he was writing in the early 19th century. 

A draft historic landscape and archaeology survey for the parish compiled by Bedfordshire County Council [PL/AC/30] suggests that the location of this chapel may have been slightly to the north-west of Roxhill Manor Farm. The old field name Holly Orchard, from Holy Orchard, just to the south of this site, and local tradition both provide some evidence for this location.