England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Norton Mandeville All Saints

The Parish

The parish of Norton Mandeville lies in southwestern Essex roughly 3 miles east of the market town of Chipping Ongar. Norton Mandeville sits a half mile north of the A414 road which links Chipping Ongar with Chelmsford. There is very little to Norton Mandeville, a real blink and miss it hamlet with its hall and church together amongst arable fields. On the A414 there is the larger settlement of Norton Heath with more properties sitting along an out-and-back cut-off of the A414 and holding Norton Manor which has parts dating back to the 16th century. Much of the parish functioned as a closed parish, the land held by Merton College, Oxford, until recent times. Like most parishes in this area it was primarily arable with early gazetteers estimating 75% of the acreage as such and growing mainly cereals. Norton Mandeville is drained southwestwards by a small tributary of the River Roding which is met close to Chipping Ongar, the Roding heads southwest passing through the eastern end of Greater London to meet the outer Thames as Barking Creek. Norton Mandeville is sited at around 70 metres above the sea with Norton Heath some 20 metres higher, there is very little land hereabouts much higher in gentle terrain. Norton Mandeville parish was one of the smallest in its county covering just 725 acres and supporting a population of close to 150 parishioners. In Domesday times Norton Mandeville was equally small and rural, largely held by Haimo the sheriff it offered 2 ploughs backed by meadows & woodland.

The Church

The lane running westwards from Norton Heath ends at the small group of hall and All Saints' church, a farm and cottages from where it continues onwards as a footpath. Pevsner points to a couple of traces of reused Norman features to speculate as to an earlier church but today's church is almost entirely one of the 14th century. The main body of nave and chancel, in flint with stone dressings, is typical of the later 14th century and Perpendicular in style. Pevsner, too, believes the timber belfry and its shingled spire are contemporary. The only significant changes since the 14th century have come from the early 20th century restoration of 1902 - 1903 which added the southern porch and rebuilt the nave's roof on the original 14th century crown-posts. The verges outside the churchyard are broad and grassy and used for parking, the churchyard is well-screened by tree-cover but this is fixed to the borders and once within the are no substantial obstacles for the photographer.