England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Sadberge St Andrew

The Parish

The chapelry of Sadberge, its mother parish being Haughton le Skerne, lies in southern Durham not too far from its border with neighbouring Yorkshire. Sadberge is located roughly 4 miles northeast of the industrial town of Darlington and sits immediately north of the A66 road which links Darlington with Stockton on Tees. Sadberge is a small and compact crossroads village, its centre being a crossroads of lanes leading to and from the cardinal points. Sadberge has a long history of greater importance than today's small rural village, in the Viking period it was an administrative centre and detached portion of Northumberland discrete from the surrounding Palatinate of Durham, a lost medieval village sits north of the present settlement. Sadberge is largely a mere farming village with most land set to arable production, a more mixed regime with rotation would have been in place at the time of this transcript. Sadberge is drained westwards by the River Carcut which soon meets, in turn, the Skerne and then the Tees before heading back east to reach the nearby North Sea through Teesside. Sadberge is sited at around 70 metres above the sea standing on a gentle eminence as the highest ground for some distance in this gentle coastal plain. Roughly 1,900 acres of Haughton le Skerne parish was allocated to the chapelry within which it would have supported a population of close to 350 parishioners. Like most of England north of the Tees Sadberge is not mentioned in Domesday Book as  beyond Norman influence this far to the north.

The Church

St Andrew's church sits toward the western edges of Sadberge on the south side of Darlington Road. Sadly the medieval church, which lay south of today's church, has been demolished and this Georgian replacement of 1831 built to serve the village. As a consequence the majority of marriages did not use this building. The small and aisleless church was built utilising a faux-Norman Romanesque style, perhaps in tribute to its earlier near neighbour, and consists of nave with smaller chancel and topped with a western bellcote. Despite its relatively modern build a Victorian restoration of 1874 not only refreshed the church but also replace the Romanesque style windows with Early English Gothic styled lancets. Darlington Road is of sufficient width to allow safe street parking outside the lychgate serving as entry. From here a shaded pathway leads through dense trees to the church which is partially surrounded with all views from the north and northeast removed as a consequence, fortunately the favoured southern aspects are clear for the photographer to use.