England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Parson Drove St John the Baptist

The Parish

The chapelry of Parson Drove, its mother parish being Leverington, lies in the extreme north of Cambridgeshire forming a stretch of the border with neighbouring Lincolnshire. Parson Drove is located roughly 5 miles west of the market town of Wisbech and sits on the B1166 at its junction with the B1187, both of which criss-cross this largely reclaimed area of Cambridgeshire's Fenland. Parson Drove is a strung out linear village built for some 2 miles from east to west along the B1166, the chapelry also included the smaller and equally linear settlement of Murrow a mile to the south. Parson Drove sits within Fenland, a largely flat man-made landscape reclaimed from the water-world that existed here in historical times. The land is made dry by a series of dykes and drains that divide the landscape up into a neat geometrical landscape of regular polygons, these polygons are extremely fertile and the area is renowned for its agricultural produce. Not only are the typical crops of cereals, beet and oil-seed grown hut also high-value table vegetables notably leeks, brassicas and onions, their odour a characteristic one of the area at harvest times. Modern developments came and went from Parson Drove, a railway branch line linking March with Spalding crossing the area of the chapelry but nowadays disused and dismantled. The drainage of the chapelry is dominated by the man-made North Level Main Drain which heads northeastwards to meet the River Nene to the south of Sutton Bridge and thence to the North Sea through The Wash. All of Parson Drove sits below 5 metres with some parts below sea level too, the flat landscape stretches for many miles with the zero contour the only one in view, 10 metres above the sea would represent a high spot. Parson Drove chapelry carved out a substantial acreage from Leverington parish, a typical feature of reclaimed landscapes, covering just under 4,500 acres it would have supported a population of close to 850 parishioners. In Domesday times this area was uninhabited and consequently carries no references in that book.

The Church

St John the Baptist's church sits at the eastern end, Church End, of the village on the northern side of the B1166. The church has its origins in the late 13th century, a period solely represented by its Early English Gothic southern doorway. The remainder of the church, other than more recent restorations, is representative of the Perpendicular style of the late 14th and 15th centuries. Of the late 14th century one finds the northern aisle, a good example of the period's style, its opposite number to the south is a 19th century rebuild described by Pevsner as "crude". Also of the similar period and Perpendicular is the western tower supported by its offset buttresses and topped by battlements. The arcades are from the later Perpendicular era of the 15th century, long at 7 bays although those on the west are curtailed by the strengthening of the tower. The church lacks a chancel, a catastrophic flood of 1613 destroyed the original. Whilst the 19th century saw the typical restoration, including the rebuild of that crude aisle, Pevsner does not assign a precise date other than to mention the replacement of both roof and east windows as being of 1895. Whilst the B1166 is a fast straight road, its lack of curves makes it same enough to park immediately outside the churchyard. Some trees line the roadside but once within there are no obstacles for the photographer.