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

The Parish

The parish of Shenfield lies in southwestern Essex about 6 miles northeast of Romford. Shenfield sits on the former route of the busy A12, which thankfully now bypasses to the north. Shenfield merges almost imperceptibly into the suburban area of Brentwood, the combined towns, for that is what they are now, stretching for over 3 miles along the A1023 road, as the former route of the A12 has been renumbered. With the coming of the railway both Brentwood & Shenfield, being less than half an hour by train from central London grew apace as commuter towns. Indeed it is as an infamous junction, where most of the lines covering East Anglia meet to continue into the capital that Shenfield is chiefly known today, a place of congestion for early morning commuters. At the time of this transcript Shenfield would have been a middling sized village and Brentwood a mere hamlet. Much of old Shenfield is grouped around the church & hall as well as the junction of the lane to Doddinghurst with the old A12. The income of the parish would have been underpinned by arable farming. Shenfield is drained by small tributaries of the River Wid which heads northeast to join the Chelmer near Chelmsford thence to the North Sea through the port of Maldon and the Blackwater Estuary. Shenfield is sited at around 90 metres above the sea and land is gentle hereabouts with little land exceeding 100 metres for many miles. Shenfield parish was fairly typically sized for its area, covering just over 2,400 acres it would have supported a population of just under 1,000 parishioners. In Domesday times Shenfield was one of the holdings of Count Eustace of Boulogne and a fairly small and insignificant one at that, offering just a single plough and a small wood it was one of the smallest places recorded in the book for this area.

The Church

St Mary the Virgin's church lies between the old A12 and its modern route and about 200 metres from the former, it sits on the northern side of the Doddinghurst lane (Hall Lane) close to the Hall. St Mary is a much restored church with very little remaining of the original fabric. The late 15th or early 16th century timber northern arcade is described by Pevsner as the most interesting part. Whilst the southern porch and western tower are also 15th century and Perpendicular in style. The remainder of the fabric comes from a series of restorations in the 1830s, 1860s and 1880s when much of the church was substantially rebuilt. Work continues up to modern times as the vestry which was added at the turn of the 20th century was extended in 1984. Despite all this work and the cement render used the church has a charm and the slender timber spire is a nice feature. Hall Lane is narrow and with little room for parking so a walk from the High Street is recommended, a church which sits almost within a forest of trees making for a challenging piece to photograph.