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

The Parish

The parish of Little Laver lies in western Essex roughly 5 miles east of the former market town and now New Town of Harlow. Little Laver sits about 2 miles west of the B184 road which links Chipping Ongar with Great Dunmow. Little Laver is an estate village dominated by Little Laver Hall, there is very little to the village just a scatter of farms and cottages around the network of lanes. The village has traces of an ancient Roman road passing through, it would have linked Londinium with Stane Street. The parish sits within very fertile land such that early gazetteers state that almost every acre was set to arable farming, little has changed as the area still is part of the Essex bread-basket. Little Laver is drained southwards by the Cripsey Brook which passes through Chipping Ongar continuing as the Rover Roding turning west and then south to pass through eastern Greater London and reach the outer Thames estuary as Barking Creek. Little Laver is sited at around 80 metres above the sea in gentle terrain, only a few spots get a little closer to the 90 metre contour for quite some distance. Little Laver parish was one of the smaller in its county covering just 894 acres and supporting a population of close to 150 parishioners. Little Laver is not specifically mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

St Mary's church stands on the eastern side of the lane which arrives from nearby Matching Tye. Whilst the church has its origins in the 14th century it has been so extensively restored/rebuilt that the result almost amounts to a modern church. The original nave and chancel were built in the 14th century in a flint rubble and in the Perpendicular style. The work of 1872 not only restored all of the main body it also added the southern porch, the northern vestry & organ chamber and an apsidal sanctuary. Following that extensive work there was further change in 1886 when the original 14th century piscina was incorporated into the reredos and sanctuary walls of carved stone and alabaster. Such is the change wrought upon this once medieval church that it would probably be unrecognisable tot the participants in these marriages. Just north of the entrance gates the verges has been worn away by repeated parking, it is still the safest spot. The neatly hedged churchyard is open and uncluttered with few obstacles to concern the photographer.