England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Egginton St Wilfrid

The Parish

The parish of Egginton lies in southern Derbyshire forming a stretch of the border with neighbouring Staffordshire. Egginton is located roughly 4 miles north of the Staffordshire brewing town of Burton upon Trent and sits just a half mile west of the busy A38 expressway that links Birmingham through Derby to Mansfield, this modern fast road follows the line of the ancient Roan Icknield Street. Egginton is small and compact village largely built around an oval of lanes with a spur, Church Road heading off southeastwards. The village sits on a complicated flood-plain formed where the River Dove, draining out of the Peak District, meets the mighty Trent. Across this broad plain lie rich pastures which dominated the farming economy of the parish, there are a few patches of arable to the north of the village but early gazetteers place them at merely 30% of the overall acreage. Modern developments encircle Egginton in abundance, first to arrive, the Trent & mersey Canal crosses the Dove on a 12 arched aqueduct, railways followed with both the Derby to Birmingham & Derby to Uttoxeter lines crossing the parish to southeast and north respectively, finally came the upgraded A38 nowadays almost motorway standard and exceptionally busy. Just 2 miles southeast of Egginton the Dove meets the Trent and a long journey to the North Sea follows arriving through the Humber Estuary. Egginton is sited at around 45 metres above the sea, beyond the flood-plain land rises only modestly reaching around 115 metres to the east of Burton upon Trent. Egginton parish was slightly larger than a conventional farming parish in lowland, it covered just under 2,300 acres and would have supported a population of close to 350 parishioners. In Domesday times Egginton was altogether a more humble rural settlement, held by Geoffrey Alselin it could only muster a pair of ploughs and a large meadow but the Dove did grant it a mill.

The Church

St Wilfrid's church lies to the southeast of the main portion of the village on the southern side of Church Road and within earshot of the roar of traffic along the A38. Like most churches St Wilfrid is a hotch-potch of styles and eras with its earliest origins around c1300. The earliest parts of the church, those dating to c1300 or close into the following century include the bell-openings of the western tower, the windows of the northern aisle and especially the lancet-style windows of the chancel. As Pevsner indicates this core is then much modified in virtually every century subsequent, a mish-mash of Perpendicular through to Tudor styled windows adorning various parts. Finally, and like most churches, the Victorians did their usual restoration, in this case it fell in the early 1890s and was a fairly thorough piece of work. Parking for the church is facilitated by a semi-circular area set into the verge of Church Road enabling several cars to park off-road. Wooden gates grant access to a churchyard which is spacious and requires quite a walk cross to reach the church which is set close to its southern edges, thankfully, from the photographer's point of view, sufficient room is left to freely view the church from most of the favourable aspects.