England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Hayton St Mary Magdalene

The Parish

The parish of Hayton lies in eastern Cumberland not too far from the border with neighbouring Northumberland and about 8 miles east of the city of Carlisle. As the extra parochial area of Geltsdale separates the two counties here it could be said to be parochially part of the county boundary. There are two villages with the name Hayton within Cumberland, the other, near Allonby & dedicated to St James, has no marriage registers for the period of this transcript. Hayton is a small and compact village which sits, in lanes, a half mile to the south of the A69 road which connects Carlisle with Newcastle Upon Tyne. Modern communications also pass through the parish in the form of the rail line between those two places which passes to the south of Hayton. At the time of this transcript Hayton's economy would have been dependent upon pastoral farming and the area, in the foothills of the nearby Pennine range, is still dominated by grazing cattle in small fields. Hayton is drained westwards by small tributaries of the River Gelt which is soon joined, the gelt soon also joins the Eden to make its way through Carlisle to the Irish Sea via the Solway Firth. Hayton is sited at around 80 metres above the sea, land rises steeply, however, to the east onto the Pennines rising to over 380 metres on nearby Talkin Fell. Hayton parish was quite large, as are most Cumberland parishes, it covered around 7,400 acres, much of its unimproved moorland, and would have supported a population of around 1,200 acres. Like much of this area Hayton is not mentioned in Domesday Book which did not cover this area of England.

The Church

St Mary Magdalene's church sits on the southern side of the main village High Street and accessed by a narrow lane leading southwards from the Stone Inn. Sadly this is not one of Cumberland's mediaeval masterpieces but an 18th century replacement. Built in 1780 at the expense of the wealthy local Graham family, whose family pew sits in the northern extension. The chancel was later and completed in 1842 an consists of two bays. The work was, however, clearly of little architectural interest for Pevsner as his description is a simple rendition of the design spread over a handful of lines. There is ample parking along the main street and a short climb reaches the site where gates enable access through metal railings. The churchyard is rather crowded with mature trees which rather restrict the angles available for photography.