Ref. 29538-37WHEN Matthew Jones and Rebekah Day had to choose a place to get married, the decision was easy.

Ten generations of Matthew's family have tied the knot at St Mary Magdalene Church in South Marston.

The couple's wedding at the village church next month will be the latest in a family line that stretches back to 1690.

Matthew, who attended South Marston Primary School and remembers taking part in school plays at the village church, said he was looking forward to getting married at a place with such a strong family connection.

"We were quite keen to have it in South Marston," said the 28-year-old, who moved to Rugby four years ago to work as a design engineer for Mitsubishi.

"I will be the 11th generation of my mother's family to get married at the church.

"It's a family tradition going back hundreds of years and it's quite unusual to be able to trace it back that far."

The couple got engaged in November 2002 and soon settled on South Marston as their preferred wedding venue.

Their choice was made easier by the fact that 24-year-old Rebekah's family, originally from Devon, had moved around and did not have a similar connection to anywhere in the West Country.

As the couple were not residents of the parish they had to apply for a special wedding licence from the Archbishop of Canterbury, which they duly received.

Matthew's mum Loraine, who still lives in the village and until last year was the warden of the church, said she was thrilled that Matthew had chosen to return to South Marston for the wedding.

"When you have roots in one place for so long it means a lot," she said.

"Every generation of the family has been married in South Marston Church and Matthew is the latest in that line."

Loraine, 55, who works at the Swindon Museum and Art Gallery in Old Town, used church records to trace her family back to the 1690s, when John Bridges married Mary Philips.

It was a relatively simple process of checking the registers and fitting them together like a jigsaw until she had a family tree, she said.

Although mother and son said they were happy the family's link with South Marston church was being continued, both predicted it could soon come to an end.

"It's quite likely I will be the last in the line," said Matthew.

"It's the nature of the world that people scatter round the country for work and if I have children in the future it's unlikely they'll get married there too."

Loraine said: "Village life has been eroded and it's not how it used to be. I wanted to have one more generation to be married here before it changes for good."

Andy Tate