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

The Parish

The parish of Good Easter lies in western central Essex roughly 8 miles northwest of the town of Chelmsford. Good Easter sits just over a mile north of the A1060 road which links Chelmsford with Bishops Stortford. Good Easter is a simple crossroads village built around a junction of lanes from the 4 compass points, the lane to the north has a small extension known as Tye Green. In addition to Tye Green there are additional small hamlets bearing the suffix "green" or "end" all of which signify early clearings in the native woodland as farmsteads. Good Easter sits within some of the best agricultural land in Essex if not in the entire country, early gazetteers estimated that almost the entire acreage was set to crops and little has changed. Today there is more of a mono-culture dominated by cereals, oil-seed and beet but at the time of this transcript smaller fields were worked in a rotational manner. Good Easter is drained southeastwards by the River Can which is met with the Wid on the western outskirts of Chelmsford and by the Chelmer on its eastern flanks, the watercourse continued as the Chelmer to the port of Maldon, the Blackwater Estuary and the North Sea. Good Easter is sited at around 70 metres above the sea in gently rolling terrain, a few spots close by breach the 80 metres contour with 87 metres at Stagden Cross to the northeast being the highest nearby ground. Good Easter parish covered almost exactly 2,000 acres and would have supported a population of close to 500 parishioners. In Domesday times Good Easter was held by the Canons of London's St Martin le Grand, it was a middling kind of farming manor offering 10 ploughs, meadows & woodland and had a mill.

The Church

St Andrew's church sits on the southeastern corner of the village on a bend where the lane headed eastwards leaves the built area. This is a church with a complex building history which even perplexed Pevsner as to its evolution. Pevsner's theory regarding the medieval content was that an original narrow 12th century Norman church was then subsequently considerable enhanced during the 13th century, sundry building scars were his main evidence for this sequence of events. Suffice it to say that the 13th century elements are shown in both nave, its west window in particular, and in the chancel where the sedilia and piscina are said to pre-date 1240. Later in the same style is the southern aisle but this was extended in the Decorated style in the early 14th century. The only Perpendicular styled piece is the 15th century southern porch. Pevsner documents 3 phases of Victorian restoration, that of 1878 repaired the nave following a lightning strike, the subsequent 1881 restoration mainly targeted the chancel whilst that of 1885 was more substantial being responsible for creating the tower, topped by a thin shingled spire, rebuilt the western wall and re-roofed the southern aisle, the unfortunate nave, which had suffered a second indignity of a fire, was also once more repaired. At the end a footpath head off around the west of the churchyard, its entrance is broad and used for parking. The churchyard is one for which some work is required of the photographer to scout around amongst the tees to find the optimal viewpoints.