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

The Parish

The parish of Little Hallingbury lies in the extreme west of Essex forming a stretch of the border with neighbouring Hertfordshire. Little Hallingbury is located roughly 3 miles south of the Hertfordshire market town of Bishop's Stortford and sits on the A1060 which connects Bishop's Stortford through to Chelmsford. The A1060 is something of a focus for settlement with a strip of properties along it almost contiguous from Latchmore Bank through Little Hallingbury to Mott's Green, the village enhancing the strip with a distinct cluster of properties to the east. Little Hallingbury sits on the edge of the flood-plain of the River Stort, a position that would have given the parish pastures as well as the typical arable farmland of an Essex parish. Modern developments have come to the area, the Stort Navigation being followed by the London to Bishop's Stortford rail line whilst in ore modern times the M11 motorway cuts through to the east of Little Hallingbury. The Stort drains the parish southwestwards merging with the Lea to pass through the East End of the capital reaching the outer Thames estuary and the North Sea. Little Hallingbury is sited at around 70 metres above the sea with land rising gently to almost 100 metres to the east and away from the Stort. Little Hallingbury parish was fairly typically sized for its county, covering just over 1,600 acres it would have supported a population of close to 500 parishioners. In Domesday times Little Hallingbury was recorded collectively with its northern neighbour Great Hallingbury, the twin parishes being shared by 4 landholders could collectively offer an impressive 26 ploughs together with extensive meadows, pastures and woodland, a prosperous farming community even then.

The Church

St Mary's church sits just east of the A1060 tucked away in Wright's Green Lane. Whilst the church is undoubtedly ancient in its origins this is a church which was extensively modified, to the point of being a significant rebuild, in Victorian times. There are traces of what was undoubtedly a late Saxon or early Norman building, even reusing some Roman bricks, left today, the southern doorway being the oldest portion remaining. From the 13th century and early English Gothic in style comes the chancel albeit the tell-tale lancet windows have been renewed. Of the 14th century comes the southern porch in the Perpendicular style. The Victorian restoration of 1853 saw a northern aisle added as well as a general restoration, work has continued even after this work with a southern vestry added in 1898 and the slender recessed spire topping the western belfry being added in 1901. Wright's Green Lane is narrow but is extensively used for domestic parking so another car will not be much of an additional burden. A low timber fence separates the churchyard with an entrance at the western end of the site; the churchyard has few obstacles for the photographer.