England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Great Shelford St Mary

The Parish

The parish of Great Shelford lies min southern Cambridgeshire roughly 5 miles south of the city of Cambridge. Great Shelford sits on the A1301 road which links Cambridge with Saffron Walden. Great Shelford is a village that has grown significantly in modern times, originally a small riverside village sitting on the eastern banks of the Granta branch of the River Cam it has grown to become contiguous with neighbouring Stapleford and also with Little Shelford on the western bank. At the time of this transcript Great Shelford would have been a farming parish, a mixture of pastures alongside the Cam whilst away from the river excellent free-draining soils would have been growing abundant cereals, the Cam also provided the village with power as both flour and oil-cake mills lined its banks. Modern developments have come to Great Shelford, the London to Cambridge railway passing through and granting the village a station which prompted much commuter growth to both Cambridge and the capital, in the north of the village the branch to Royston swings away southwestwards. Nowadays Great Shelford and its two satellites cover an area almost town-sized, arrow-shaped with the head forming Great Shelford and Stapleford whilst narrow west of the Cam in Little Shelford, in addition the A1301 is now lined with properties all the way to the centre of Cambridge through Trumpington. Great Shelford is drained northwards by the Granta Cam which soon meets the Rhee Cam to pass through Cambridge, from there it continues northwards to meet the Great Ouse for its final miles to the North Sea arriving through The Wash and the port of King's Lynn. Great Shelford is sited at between 10 and 30 metres above the sea on gentle rising valley sides, to its northeast stand he Gog Magog Hills which reach 88 metres at their highest point. Great Shelford parish was typically sized for this area covering almost exactly 1,900 acres which would have supported a population of close to 800 parishioners. Both Great and Little Shelford were recorded as one entity in the book, one that was collectively large enough to be in the top 20% of settlements by population, shared 4 ways including the King, the combined assets amounted to a very impressive 33 ploughs, meadows and the 2 mills were already in situ.

The Church

St Mary's church stands on the western edge of the village on the northwestern side of Church Street and close to where that street crosses the Cam. Whilst the first stone-built St Mary was created in the 12th century Norman Romanesque period little remains of that church besides fragments embedded into the fabric. Also relatively early is the 13th century Early English Gothic piscina. It was the encumpancy of Rector Thomas Patesley, in post 1396 to 1418 that oversaw the rebuilding of almost the entire church in the Perpendicular style, the standard nave and chancel coming equipped with a nave clerestory, both northern & southern aisles and a southern porch which was added later in the 15th century. Puritan iconoclasts sadly destroyed the church's stained glass in 1643 but the major disaster than struck the church was the gale in 1708 which blew down the former 14 metre high steeple. That disaster lead to a weakening of the main tower which subsequently followed the steeple into collapse in 1798. By 1801 today's ashlar-faced, unbuttressed west tower with an octagonal upper stage was built to replace it. A Victorian restoration of 1862 - 1868 was thorough but followed in 1912 by further changes. Parking is permitted for a short distance outside the churchyard for the fortunate, trees beset the western and northern sides of the church but the favoured southern aspects are free for the photographer.