England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Stanton by Bridge St Michael

The Parish

The parish of Stanton by Bridge lies in southern Derbyshire roughly 6 miles south of the city of Derby. Stanton by Bridge sits on and mostly west of the A514 road which links Derby with Swadlincote. Stanton by Bridge gets its name from the proximity to Swarkestone Bridge which crosses there nearby River Trent, there being two Stantons in the county it is necessary to distinguish them. Whilst Stanton by Bridge does have a presence on the A514 most the village sits to its west either side of the Ingleby Road which forms its main street. Stanton by Bridge sits upon the rich alluvial soils of the flood-plain of the Trent which gave the parish rich pastures for the pastoral farming which dominated the village economy. In more modern times the gravels deposited by the river, in its more wild days, across the area have been exploited for road building creating pits that have flooded with that near to Stanton by Bridge being now popular with the local sailing club. The Trent drains the parish eastwards to Nottingham and then Newark before heading north to the Humber Estuary and thence to the North Sea. Stanton by Bridge is sited 15 metres higher than the river at around 50 metres above the sea, land rises away from the river steadily to a spot height of 125 metres near Ticknall, the local high spot in gentle terrain. Stanton by Bridge parish covered just under 1,300 acres, relatively small parish in this area, that area would have supported close to 200 parishioners. In Domesday times Stanton by Bridge was a rather modest rural manor held by one Ernwy, who appears to be a Saxon survivor, 4 ploughs were backed by a small meadow and a mill.

The Church

St Michael's church stands on the southern side of Ingleby Road towards the western end of the village. Whilst much was altered by two substantial rebuilds in 1682 and 1856 the church retains fabric from the earliest times of stone-built churches. At the southeaster corner of the chancel there is long-and-short work which is dated to the Saxon period and probably pre-Conquest. The southern doorway, too, is very early and Norman from the 12th century. The main body of the church was originally built in the 13th century but as already indicated has been much modified since then, fragments, such as the southern window of the chancel and the windows of the northern aisle, remain. 1682, however, saw a partial rebuild of the church and the Victorian restoration made further changes including the addition of the tall western bellcote with its twin bells. Such is the use of the verge outside the gates that almost all grass has been worn away, it allows safe on-street parking. This is however a church to vex the photographer as its sits amongst a veritable forest of trees with very few angles available, some a thorough recce is required to select the best views.