England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Corney St John

The Parish

The parish of Corney lies in southern Cumberland not too far from its Irish Sea coastline. Corney is located about 9 miles north of the industrial town of Millom and sits just under a mile east of the A595 road which links Millom with Whitehaven. Corney is a rather dispersed settlement sitting at the western base of some high fells yet commanding the coastal plain. The parish is dominated by Corney Hall which sits south of the parish church in a small estate. The remainder of the parish is dotted with farmsteads and cottages with no real centre. Corney parish included a small portion of the coastal plain where cattle pastures and small arable fields lie, the latter growing mainly root crops and the hardiest of cereals, to the east land rises markedly into upland grazing dominated by the local Herdwick sheep. A small lode of iron ore gave a short period when extraction was possible employing many before it was exhausted. The hillsides above the plains are littered with traces of early man in the form of field systems and hut circles believed to date from the Bronze Age. Modern developments have come to the parish, the coastal railway line from Millom to Whitehaven skirting the western edges of the parish without granting Corney a station. Fast flowing becks drain off the fells coalescing into the River Annas which follows a convoluted course, initially south but veering back northwards before reaching the Irish Sea at Selker Bay. Corney is sited between 20 metres above the sea on the coastal plain, rising to 100 metres at the church and culminating in the heights of Corney Fell which summits at 549 metres at Buck Barrow, a target for determined hikers. Corney parish covered close to 3,000 acres and would have supported a population of around 250 parishioners. This far north in western England is beyond Domesday's coverage so Corney has no entry in that book.

The Church

St John's church stands alone on a remote hillside between a quarter and a half mile north of Corney Hall, it stands on the western side of Church Brow. The church has medieval origins but not even Pevsner dares to offer a date for its creation. A simple church of nave & chancel with a western bellcote it is largely built in granite lumps but some walls are rendered in a roughcast. Restoration work identified an original doorway to the nave, now blocked, and the northern doorway to the chancel as original medieval fabric. Two periods of restoration are noted by Pevsner, that of 1847 adding the vestry whilst that of 1882 added the Gothic styled mullioned windows as well as being a more general restoration. The church is reached from Church Brow by a gated footpath, there is enough space for a car to park before the gate, the churchyard is open and uncluttered with no obstacles whatsoever to impede the photographer.