England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Takeley Holy Trinity

The Parish

The parish of Takeley lies in western Essex not too far from its border with neighbouring Hertfordshire. Takeley is situated about 5 miles east of the Hertfordshire market town of Bishop's Stortford. Takeley is a large and substantial village which sits at a crossroads on what would, prior to the construction of a new route, have been the busy A120 road which followed the route of the Roman Stane Street between Bishop's Stortford and Braintree. Today the old route has been downgraded to the B1256. Takeley is somewhat beset by modern developments, the busy M11 motorway runs just to its west and a large portion of the parish is now occupied by London's third airport, Stansted, with major threats to the village from expansion thereof. At the time of this transcript Takeley would have largely been an arable farming settlement on the edges of the former hunting forest of Hatfield Forest. Takeley is drained to the south by the infant River Roding which makes its way towards the edge of the London conurbation and reaches the Thames Estuary and the North Sea through Barking. Takeley is sited at around 100 metres above the sea and sits on a gentle ridge in countryside that, at best, is gently rolling. Takeley parish was of a fairly typical size for its area, it covered just under 3,200 acres and would have supported a population of about 900 parishioners. In Domesday times Takeley was shared three ways, between one Robert Gernon, Eudo the Steward and the abbey of Saint Valery. The parish was quite substantial, it could offer 14 ploughs, substantial meadows & woodland and a half share in a mill; one would have expected the reported 1,400 pigs to have created quite a stench, however!

The Church

Holy Trinity church sits almost a quarter mile away from the village to its northwest and sits alone amongst fields at the end of a tarred access drive. The church has very early origins and contains a handful of Norman features as well as some reused Roman brick. The majority of the church is, however, the result of later changes. The chancel is an example of the early English Gothic of the early 13th century whilst the southern porch and tower are 15th century and in the Perpendicular style. The church received an extensive restoration in the Victorian era over two phases, a general restoration in the late 1750s whilst the chancel received attention in 1874. Combined these two restorations have masked much of the early dating information. Work has continued into this millennium as the western end was restored and a vestry built into the base of the tower in 2003-5. A sign points the way off the B1256 (Dunmow Road) along the long tarred driveway to a small car park. The site is curiously extended on a north-south axis and there is some restrictions to photography at both eastern and western ends.