England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Cold Norton St Stephen

The Parish

The parish of Cold Norton lies in southeastern Essex roughly 5 miles south of the port & market town of Maldon. Cold Norton sits about 1 mile west of the B1010 road which connects Danbury with Burnham on Crouch. Cold Norton is a much changed and grown village, early maps show just the Hall & church sitting amongst a scatter of farms and cottages whereas today a substantial village is gathered to the northwest, much of this growth has occurred in the 20th century. It would appear from the early maps that, at the time of this transcript, Cold Norton was an estate settlement dominated by the needs of the Hall and largely earning its income from arable farming. Modern developments have come and gone from the parish, a railway line linking Maldon with South Woodham Ferrers having closed and been largely dismantled. Cold Norton sits a couple of miles to the north of the Crouch Estuary and several small channels, mainly man-made drainage channels, take water to the estuary and thence to the North Sea. Cold Norton is sited at around 40 metres above the sea in fairly flattish terrain where only a few spots breach the 50 metre contour, those mainly west of Cold Norton. Cold Norton parish was typically sized for its area covering just under 1,700 acres it would have supported a population of close to 250 parishioners, today's population being well over 1,000 given the growth. In Domesday times Cold Norton was held by one Ralph Maynard and was a typical rural manor offering 9 ploughs, pastures & woodland and a mill.

The Church

St Stephen's church sits southeast of the village by just under a half mile on the northern side of St Stephens Road and adjacent to Norton Hall. Sadly the current church is not that in which these marriages took place but a Victorian replacement completed in 1855. The church is a simple church of Kent ragstone ornamented with Caen stone dressings. There is a nave and lower chancel, a northern vestry and a timber porch but no tower or bellcote. The verge outside the churchyard is well used for parking having been rubbed bare of grass, entry is through wooden gates and the churchyard has no significant obstacles for the photographer.