England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Dedham St Mary the Virgin

The Parish

The parish of Dedham lies in the extreme north of Essex forming a stretch of the county's border with neighbouring Suffolk, here formed by the River Stour. Dedham is located roughly 7 miles northeast of Colchester and stands a mile east of the A12 road which links Colchester with Ipswich. For much of its existence Dedham based its economy upon the wool & cloth trade, begun as early as mid 13th century by the 14th it had developed into the principal industry of the town and turned Dedham into a flourishing market town. Dedham sits on the southern banks of the River Stour and forms an inverted "Y" shape with the High Street forming its head, the B1029 crosses the Stour and forms the western limb of the town whilst a further lane takes the eastern arm headed for the subsidiary settlement of Dedham Heath. Much of the parish was meadows and pastures until modern times supporting the sheep that provided the wool for the town's prosperity. Like many towns which depended upon hand loom production the mechanisation of the cloth industry in northern mill-towns hit the town hard and from the 15th century Dedham went into decline. It was the town's situation in the Stour Valley that resurrected its fate as a tourist centre, the bucolic landscape being famously captured by Constable, a local lad from north of the Stour in Suffolk, his iconic "Haywain" drawing tourists to the area and turning Dedham into a service town full of inns and other accommodation. As the Stour was navigable Dedham also held a small inland port for the shipment of local agricultural produce and importing of coal and timber. The Stour's buried resources also became exploited with sand and gravel pits opened to exploit it mainly for road building. Whilst Dedham's market status has declined it remains a local centre for trade and specialist skills. Modern developments have arrived in the parish, the railway line from London to Ipswich passes through the east of the parish granting nearby Manningtree a station, whilst the A12 is nowadays a modern dual-carriageway highway. Dedham is drained eastwards by the Stour becoming an estuary beyond Manningtree and passing into the North Sea between the twin ports of Harwich & Felixstowe. Dedham is sited on rising ground south of the river, the bridge stands at just 3 metres above the sea whilst Dedham Heath is at 40 metres some of the highest ground in the near vicinity. Dedham parish was quite extensive for its area covering a little over 2,500 acres and supporting close to 1,800 parishioners. Domesday Dedham was a more modest manor held by Roger de Rames offering just 8 ploughs some meadows & woodland but the Stour also supported 2 mills.

The Church

St Mary's church stands on the southern side of the town's High Street directly opposite the Sun Inn and facing the B1029 as it descends to cross the Stour. Today's church is a tribute to the wealth of the cloth merchants as it was constructed in the late 15th and early 16th centuries replacing a much smaller church which had a footprint equivalent only to the size of today's southern aisle chapel. Begun in 1492 the build took around 30 years to complete being marked in 1522 by the completion of the main core of the church together with the western tower. There are pieces of the earlier church incorporated into the new version, the re-set southern doorway is a 14th century relic of the early church. The main donors to the construction project were the local Webbe family and there is a series of will donation documenting the stages of the completion. The church is an impressive construction being 170 feet in length and carrying a steeple to 130 feet in height, it consists of a long nave complete with clerestory and light and airy arcades, a long chancel, 2 tall porches and that impressive western tower. The western tower also includes an unusual vaulted, open processional passage, the Galiliee porch, adorned with royal badges and merchant's marks. Pevsner records two periods of Victorian restoration, that of 1862 removed part of the western gallery and uncovered the piscina whilst the second of 1880 tackled further work in the chancel. High Street, for the fortunate, has parking bays along its length for 2 hour stays, any longer a town car park is required. Unusually for a church it is the northern aspect which is most sought for its complex ornamentation and late-Perpendicular architecture, the main issue for the photographer is the adjacent buildings and constant flow of foot traffic, the extensive southern aspects are available but have patches of tree cover requiring careful selection of views