England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Nichol Forest St Nicholas

The Parish

The chapelry of Nichol Forest, its mother parish being Kirkandrews on Esk, lies in the extreme north of Cumberland forming a lengthy stretch of the border with Scotland. Nichol Forest is located roughly 10 miles northeast of the small town of Longtown and sits about a mile north of the meandering B6318 road which links Langhom in Scotland through to the villages upon Hadrian's Wall. Nichol Forest is not actually marked upon maps and the whole chapelry has small dispersed hamlets such as Warwicksland, Catlowdy and Bushfield each having small populations. This far north it is difficult to grow crops and the area is largely farmed by pastoral means, in modern times vast forestry plantations of swift growing pines for many miles over the hills that lie to the east. Modern developments have come to the area but disappeared, a branch railway line following the Liddel Water once connected Carlisle with Hawick but has closed and been largely dismantled. Nichol Forest is drained by the Liddel Water which forms the border with Scotland, it heads southwest and meets the River Esk and reaching the Irish Sea through Solway Firth. Nichol Forest is sited at around 120 metres above the sea at its church which stands 60 metres higher than the Liddel Water, land rises to impressive border hills eastwards reaching 234 metres on Chamot Hill and higher still further northwards. Almost 8,500 acres of Kirkandrews on Esk parish is assigned to Nichol Forest chapelry and that would have supported a population of close to 800 parishioners. This far north there are no entries in Domesday Book which has virtually no coverage north of the Lancashire border on the western side of the Pennines.

The Church

St Nicholas' church stands on the eastern side of Newcastleton just west of Kingfield House and about 3/4s of a mile east of the Liddel Water. The present church is at least the third iteration of church on this site as the original medieval church was replaced in 1812 only for that church to be replaced again by today's version completed in 1867, thus it is not the venue for these marriages. The basic nave and chancel is augmented by two prominent timber edifices, the porch and its stand out feature a towering fleche above the western end, the chancel has an apse a hark back to earliest church-building times. The patterned slate roof makes the church rather picturesque despite its modernity. As Newcasleton passes the church the verge is surfaced and broad allowing a vehicle to safely park at the road edge, an arched set of metal gates grant entry, tall trees outline the churchyard but enough space remains for an acceptable landscape view, the views of the western end are impeded somewhat by the trees.