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

The Parish

The parish of Lanchester lies in northern County Durham, indeed it forms a significant part of Durham's border with neighbouring Northumberland. Lanchester is located about 8 miles northwest of the county town of Durham and the village that gives its name to the parish sits astride the A691 road which connects Durham with Consett. Lanchester parish covers an extensive area and includes three chapelries, Esh, Medomsley & Satley, which were separately licensed for marriages and have their own pages. Lanchester is a large sprawling village mainly built along the A691 and largely filling the valley of the Backgill Burn which it occupies. Lanchester has a long history and is reputed to have been founded as a Roman way station being just east of Dere Street. Lanchester parish would largely have earned its living by pastoral farming albeit some industry made use of the Burn's power. The Backgill Burn drains the parish eastwards, shortly joining the River Browney and then the Wear before reaching the sea through the port of Sunderland. Lanchester is sited at around 110 metres above the sea, but sits in a valley; local heights rise sharply to over 250 metres within a mile of the village. Lanchester parish was extremely extensive, one of the larger by area even in a county with large acreage parishes, it covered almost 42,000 acres and would have supported a population of almost 8,000 parishioners. In common with much of the north of England Lanchester is not mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

All Saints' church sits at the heart of the village by the junction of A691 and the minor road, Peth Bank. All Saints is a very early church and rather magnificent in the preservation of those early styles. The main fabric of the church has been dated from the period covered by the Norman Romanesque styles of the 11th & 12th centuries to the Early English Gothic styles of the later 12th & early 13th centuries. There is also much evidence that the church, at least partially was augmented with Roman stones from the way station. The chancel was rebuilt sometime about the middle of the 13th century and changes were further made when the church was made collegiate in 1283, the chancel widened and a northern chancel chapel added. Much later and Perpendicular in style comes the western tower and from that period much of the fenestration for the northern & southern aisles plus the clerestory were refreshed. Pevsner's summing up describes the church as "one of the most rewarding parish churches in the county" and few would differ from that opinion. The site is separated from the nearby pavements by a low, local stone, wall and there are entrances at both northwestern and southwestern corners of the site. The church is rather hemmed in by trees from the east but adequate photographs can be made from other angles.