England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Bradbourne All Saints

The Parish

The parish of Bradbourne lies in western Derbyshire roughly 5 miles northeast of the market town of Ashbourne. The hamlet of Bradbourne, which grants its name to the parish sits a half mile east of the B5056 road which links Ashbourne through to the A5012 at Grangemill. Bradbourne is a broad and extensive parishes which includes a large number of chapelries which were licensed for marriage, notably Tissington, Brassington & Baildon as well as the detached chapelry of Atlow, the actual acreage remaining for Bradbourne being much smaller. Indeed such is the proportion that only14% of the total parish population actually inhabited Bradbourne. The parish occupies much high ground within the limestone area of the Peak District, the "White Peak", and sheep rearing would have been the main farming content, the suoerb limestone, however, was perhaps the largest employer in its extraction & processing. Bradbourne  is drained southwestwards by the Bradbourne Brook which eventually meets the River Dove, in its iconic gorge, the Dove, in turn, joins the Trent for that long journey to the North Sea arriving through the Humber Estuary. Bradbourne  is sited at around 200 metres above the sea with higher peaks such as Blackstone's Law at 295 metres and Harboro' Rocks at 379 metres being the local summits. As already mentioned Bradbourne  parish was very extensive, covering almost 10,000 acres and supporting a population of around 1,300 parishioners, this would be a double-count as the chapelries are independently documented too, that for the rump of the parish being closer to 600. In Domesday times Bradbourne  was recorded as a holding of Henry de Ferrers and was small rural holding offering just 6 ploughs and typical meadows & woodland.

The Church

All Saints' church sits within Bradbourne hamlet tucked away north of Mill Lane, the main east to west running lane, and approached between fronting properties in a bleached white limestone track. All Saints is a church with a very long history, Pevsner notes the characteristic "long & short work" of the Saxon period on the northern side of the nave indicating a pre-Conquest existence albeit the masonry tells a complex history showing 13th century lancet Early English Gothic styled windows as well. What is more certain is the great age of the short western tower which is largely from the 12th century and Norman Romanesque in age, a rare survivor although the battlements are from the Perpendicular era and contemporary with the clerestory that sits above the nave and most of the windows of the southern aisle. The chancel, too, is something of a mixed bag with 13th century lancets as well as a 14th century, Decorated style, chancel arch. All is indicative of a church of very early origins having been added too and modified over the many centuries.  Restoration of the church came late with the work being completed in 1909 to the church we see today. The broad entranceway to the track leading to the church provides amply for parking, it being only a short walk to the broad, uncluttered churchyard with no obstacles for the photographer.