England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Ault Hucknall St John the Baptist

The Parish

The parish of Ault Hucknall lies in northeastern Derbyshire forming a substantial part of the border with neighbouring Nottinghamshire. Ault Hucknall is located about 6 miles northwest of the Nottinghamshire manufacturing town of Mansfield and sits, in lanes, about a half mile south of the A617 road which connects Mansfield through to Chesterfield. The is not much to modern day Ault Hucknall, no village as such, and the parish is dominated by the estate of Hardwick Hall, now in the care of the National Trust but formerly the home of the Hardwick family and built at the expense of the Countess of Shrewsbury during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1. Most modern day properties are as a result of the development of deep coal mining to the north of the parish with the village of Glapwell being the largest settlement hereabouts. The economy of Ault Hucknall would have been strongly agricultural at the time of this transcript and dominated by the affairs of the estate. Modern developments have penetrated the parish, the modern M1 motorway passing through the western portion of the parish. Ault Hucknall is drained eastwards by the infant River Meden which flows onwards through the Maun, Idle and finally Trent to reach the North Sea through the Humber Estuary. Ault Hucknall is sited, at around 160 metres above the sea, both Hall & church sitting on a ridge of magnesian limestone with extensive westward views, the ridge, forming a gentle escarpment, rises steadily northwards to just over 180 metres. Northern Derbyshire parishes are all rather large and Ault Hucknall was no exception, it covered almost 4,300 acres and would have supported a population of close to 700 parishioners. In Domesday times Ault Hucknall was recorded as the manor of Tunstall and was shared between Roger de Poitou and Ralph the son of Hubert, collectively their assets amounted to 12 ploughs, small meadows & woodland and there was a mill.

The Church

St John the Baptist's church sits on the northern side of Ault Hucknall Lane, a narrow lane which parallels the nearby A617. The church has ancient origins, a fact alerted by the presence of a central crossing tower, a design and layout favoured by the Normans. Pevsner even speculates that the eastern archway holding up that tower is pre-Norman but hesitates and assigns an 11th century date, it counterpart to the west is certainly Norman Romanesque in style and probably from a century later. The nave and northern aisle are of a similar age albeit with later modifications from the 14th century. The southern arcade is also 14th century whilst the upper stages of the tower together with the southern porch were rebuilt in a Perpendicular style from the late 15th or early 16th centuries. Like most churches this was extensively restored in Victorian times, in this case in the 1880s to result in today's church. Ault Hucknall Lane is fairly narrow but a verge outside the gates permits a car to park, the church is set back almost 100 metres from the road and is accessed by a tarred pathway. The church sits towards the eastern edge of the churchyard and farm buildings from the neighbouring farm crowd that end somewhat restricting the angles available for photography.