England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Great Sampford St Michael

The Parish

The parish of Great Sampford lies in northwestern Essex not too far from the border with both neighbouring Cambridgeshire & also Suffolk. Great Sampford is located about 6 miles east of the market town of Saffron Walden and sits on the B1053 road which connects Saffron Walden with Finchingfield and Braintree. Great Sampford is a fairly linear village stretching for almost 3/4 of a mile along that road and with a short spur running down to the crossing of the River Pant which that road parallels. This is an intensely arable farming area and that would also have dominated the local economy at the time of this transcript, in those days some pastures also lay along the Pant watermeadows and a small industry weaving straw plait also provided some income. The Pant drains the parish southeastwards, after passing through Braintree it becomes the Blackwater and makes for the North Sea through the port of Maldon. Great Sampford is sited at around 70 metres above the sea in gently rolling countryside where local heights rise to around 110 metres within a couple of miles, the Pant forming a pleasant valley through the arable landscape. Great Sampford parish was rather small for its area, it would have covered just over 1,600 acres and supported a population of close to 900 parishioners. In Domesday times Great Sampford was one of the King's personal holdings and a prosperous place offering 16 ploughs, meadows & woodland and a mill.

The Church

St Michael's church sits at the heart of the village right by the junction of the B1053 with the B1051 running towards Thaxted. The church has undergone significant changes within the mediaeval period, the southern chapel is all that remains of a cruciform building from the 12th to 13th centuries where it had formed the transept. This church was almost completely replaced during the first half of the 14th century by a standard Decorated church with nave, chancel and western tower. Pevsner describes the chancel as unusually lavish and dates it to no later than 1320 and also dates the northern aisle to the same period. Like most churches there were later restorations, a significant one of 1874 and a further restoration of the battlemented tower in the late 1930s. The church sits to the west of the junction forming the centre of the village, behind a low brick & flint wall, there are several entrances, the usual being from the north. Once through the thick band of screening trees the churchyard is relatively free of photographic obstacles.