England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Weston on Trent St Mary

The Parish

The parish of Weston on Trent lies in the extreme south of Derbyshire, as its suffix suggest on the banks of the Trent which, here forms the border with neighbouring Leicestershire. Weston on Trent is a substantial village which sits roughly 2 miles south of the busy A50 road which connects Stoke upon Trent through to the M1 motorway. Weston on Trent is an edge of flood-plain settlement, raised just a few metres above the level at which water-meadows would have been before man got to work. That environment lead to a diverse farming regime with pastures on the flood-plain and arable on drier areas. Modern developments have come to the parish, the first being the Trent & Mersey Canal which links those two major rivers, this was followed by the Nottingham to Stoke railway line whilst that A50 road was created in modern times to swiftly transport traffic through the Trent Valley. The Trent drains the parish initially eastwards on its long journey to the North Sea arriving there through the Humber Estuary. West on Trent is sited at around 50 metres above the sea, some 15 metres above the Trent, land rises very gently northwards to a local spot height of 73 metres. Weston on Trent parish was fairly typically sized for southern, lowland, Derbyshire, covering just under 2,000 acres it would have supported a population of almost 400 parishioners. In Domesday times Weston on Trent was recorded as "waste" in the hands of King William, himself, with no recorded assets.

The Church

St Mary's church sits some half mile southwest of the village centre along a dead-end lane which becomes a footpath which leads to the canal & River Trent. Like many churches St Mary is a hotch-potch of styles marking the centuries of its existance. Pevsner notes the earliest parts of the church as 13th century with the southern doorway and the lancet windows of the southern aisle and the east window as representative of the early English Gothic era. The ogee tracery of the northern aisle places into the Decorated style of the early 14th century. From the next style era comes the western tower with its recessed spire, it is suspected that all of the battlements come from this period along with their associated upper stages. Matters largely rested until the Victorian era when a typical restoration took place, in this case the major work fell in the 1870s. Finally the replacement window in the east end which so displeased Pevsner (who calls it "vile") marks the end, so far, of all work. The narrow access road is surfaced to the church and ends in a substantial gravelled parking area allowing an extended visit. The site, surrounded by a low local stone wall, with its pair of wooden gates to allow entry is open, uncluttered and with no major obstacles to the photographer.