England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Sandon St Andrew

The Parish

The parish of Sandon lies in the southern portion of central Essex about 3 miles southeast of the town of Chelmsford. Once a small and compact village, lying a quarter mile south of the A1060 road which connects Chelmsford with Maldon, Sandon is now fast growing as a suburb of the spreading town of Chelmsford, a process hastened by the placing of the modern A12 just to Sandon's east with easy access from the A1060. The original village of Sandon is largely built around a crossroads of the lane running between Great Baddow & Danbury with a lane running north to join the A1060. At the time of this transcript sandon would largely have been an arable farming community. Sandon sits within the valley and influence of the River Chelmer and this drains eastwards to join the Blackwater Estuary and North Sea through the port of Maldon. Sandon is sited at 30 metres above the sea and the land around undulates gently around that height for quite a distance. By the standards of Essex parishes Sandon was a fairly typically sized one, it covered just over 1,900 acres and would have supported a population of just over 500 parishioners. There is no specific mention of Sandon in Domesday Book.

The Church

St Andrew's church sits at the heart of the old village at the main crossroads. The chancel and nave are the oldest part of the church and they reveal a very early origin, indeed they incorporate Roman brick within them showing at least some occupation of Sandon back to the earliest times. The Romanesque Norman style is usually dated to 11th or 12th centuries and Sandon was probably of the latter century. In the 14th century the original church was augmented by the addition of the northern aisle and in the 16th century the western tower, with its battlements, polygonal stair turret and small brick dome replaced whatever original tower was present. In the early 20th century a restoration was sensitively completed and the modern meeting room was added in 1993. The church sits on the corner of Woodhill Lane and Hall Lane and the entrance is in Hall Lane where there is parking. The site is heavily screened by mature trees and surrounded by a low wooden picket fence. Metal gates grant access from Hall Lane, the churchyard has some restrictions on photographic angles due to the trees.

The Records

The first register is a standard preprinted and self-numbered combined Banns & Marriage register with 4 entries per page. Images of this register are available to view on the subscription web site SEAX and they were used to prepare this transcript. For this register both image quality and handwriting were acceptable making for a straightforward piece to prepare.

The second register, which supersedes the above, is a standard preprinted and prenumbered Rose Marriage register. Images of this register are also available to view on SEAX and they were used to prepare this transcript. Once again the image quality and handwriting were satisfactory making for another straightforward piece to prepare.