England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Pinxton St Helen

The Parish

The parish of Pinxton lies in the extreme east of Derbyshire forming a stretch of the county's border with neighbouring Nottinghamshire. Pinxton is located roughly 3 miles east of the town of Alfreton and sits on and mostly south of the B6019 which links Alfreton with Kirkby in Ashfield in Nottinghamshire. Pinxton is a much grown village, nowadays almost a small town, early maps show the village clustered around the multi-junction interchange of the B6019 with local lanes with the parish church standing amongst field some way to the southwest. Much of the area between the two has now become developed as coal mining flourished for a while in the area. The parish economy was underpinned by extraction of both coal and the other local minerals of the area, the wider parish would have been largely farmed by pastoral methods. Modern developments abound around Pinxton, the Erewash Canal and Cromford Branch canal arrived first stimulating the development of New Pinxton, a branch railway line soon followed the Erewash valley linking Pinxton to Kirkby in Ashfield, the line is now closed. To the east of the village runs the modern M1 motorway whilst to the west and northwest the A38 has been upgraded to fast dual carriageway highway, where the two meet north of Pinxton is one of the busiest interchanges in the land. The parish is drained southwards by the River Erewash which skirts Ilkeston before meeting the Trent near Long Eaton, the Trent heads through Nottingham northeastwards and eventually north to reach the North Sea through the Humber Estuary. Pinxton is sited between 90 metres above the sea, by the river, to 140 metres at the M1/A38 interchange, a few spots to the south at Selston over-top that height but only marginally. By Derbyshire stands Pinxton parish was one of the smaller in the county covering just under 1,300, it would have supported a population growing to almost 900 by the end of the transcript period, the volume of marriages recorded would indicate and average of close to 700 for the transcript period. Pinxton is not mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

St Helen's church stood almost 3/4s of a mile southwest of the original village centre at the junction of Church Street West & Park Lane, today the houses encroach right to the churchyard boundaries. This is a church which is jumble of bits and pieces, the result of at least 3 principal building events. The church has its origins in the 13th century with only the tower stump and the stub of the nave remaining from that medieval Early English Gothic church. Just prior to the start of the transcript period a whole new church was built alongside with the nave fragment reduced to being just a chapel and the tower now sited to its southeast. During the Victorian era a restoration added the topmost stages to the tower, rebuilding it as part of an overall restoration. Finally in 1939 a northern aisle and western porch were added with contrasting white stone facings. The overall result is something of a hotch-potch. Park Lane has ample width for safe on-street parking, the churchyard has a few scattered trees but nothing to concern the photographer.