England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
West Ham All Saints

The Parish

The parish of West Ham forms the southwestern corner of the county of Essex with an extensive section of the county's border with neighbouring Middlesex, it also, in the form of the outer Thames Estuary, forms the border with Kent. West Ham sits midway between the A118 & a124 road leading eastwards from London into urban Essex, it is nowadays an integral part of the urban area of Greater London but this was not always so. Already a substantial settlement in Domesday times West Ham was granted a market in 1253 and until Victorian times stood as a market town surrounded by rural fields. The parish was extensive including portions of Epping  Forest in its northernmost reaches whilst the majority sat on the rich clays of the successive terraces rising northwards from the Thames. The resulting heavy soils were largely dedicated to pastures supplying good quality livestock largely for the London Market with early gazetteers estimating 2/3rds of the parish acreage set to pasture.The western edges of the parish, and the Middlesex county border, were low-lying marshland yet it was this area as Stratford Langthorne that became the focus for industrialisation and development with distilleries, flour mills and printing works, it was here, with the coming of the railways that the Eastern Counties Railway built its vast railway engineering works in 1847 effectively creating the basis for the Stratford we see today. Meanwhile West Ham remained largely an overgrown market town and middle-class enclave until the more general development of the area in the late 19th and 20th centuries. Development has continued until the most recent of times with the creation of the Olympic Park and facilities for the Channel Tunnel Link in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Modern developments abound in the area with an extensive network of firstly canals along the course of the River Lea, multiple rail and tube lines criss-crossing the district and the raising of the A13 to the south as a fast dual-carriageway. Thus West Ham is an integral part of the Greater London metropolis, part of the vast urban area stretching for many miles all around. West Ham is drained into the nearby Thames estuary by a combination of the River Lea and numerous drains and sub-surface channels. West Ham is sited at between sea level and 10 metres above with most of the urban area sitting below 5 metres, Thames terraces rise slowly northwards as stepped and gentle rises. West Ham parish was extensive covering just over 4,500 acres with a rapidly growing population which reached over 12,500 by the end of the transcript period, the volume of marriages recorded herein point to an average population which was closer to 5,500 during the transcript period. As already mentioned West Ham was large enough in Domesday times to sit comfortably within the largest 20% of settlements by population, the Domesday entries are confusing as those pertaining to landholders Robert Gernon & Ranulf Peverel are identical, it is tempting to accept just a single set of asset records which nonetheless record 16 ploughs, meadows & woodland and no fewer than 8 mills, it is possible those numbers are double.

The Church

All Saints' church sits close to the invisible boundary between West Ham and Stratford and west of the urban oasis of West Ham Park, it sits on the northern side of Church Street in grounds between that road and the Densham Road/Portway. Externally the church is a mixture of the Perpendicular style and more modern elements, internally a much more nuanced history is revealed by Pevsner forensic searching. Round-arched windows, now blocked up, indicate a 12th century origin for the church which was extended substantially in the 13th century to create a 7-bay nave complete with arcades containing circular piers and double-chamfered arches, all typical signs of the Early English Gothic period. To this original 13th century main body the 15 the century elements mark a second wave of rebuilding. The 15th century western tower of Kentish rag-stone is solid Perpendicular as is the late 15th century southern chapel and even the 16th century northern chapel. A major Victorian restoration impacted the church between 1847 & 1849 introduced the unusual little windows and arches into the nave's western gallery, further work of 1865 removed much of the internal wall plaster. Like most urban churches All Saints is one to visit on foot with the area's excellent communications allowing easy approach. For the photographer the church's site presents many challenges as the building is embedded in thick trees, from the western end around the northern side to the southeastern corner all are impeded or removed by the tree-cover allowing only limited aspects for the photographer.