England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Cardiff St John the Baptist

The Parish

The parish of Cardiff lies in the extreme southeast of Glamorgan forming a stretch of the county's coastline with the English Channel and with Monmouthshire not too far away to the east. Cardiff is the county city of Glamorgan and the capital of Wales it sits roughly 158 miles west of London and stands on a network of A-class roads including the A48 which links it with Newport, Chepstow and Gloucester. Cardiff's origins are slightly obscure but it is believed to have been founded as early as c55 as a Roman fort on the banks of River Taff (Afon Taf), the medieval history of the city begins with the arrival of the Normans who established Cardiff Castle over the site of that Roman Fort., by 1093 Cardiff had become the HQ of the Marcher Lords of Glamorgan. South of the castle the walled medieval Borough grew up and by the 12th century it was walled with 4 gates. Various religious houses became established with both Dominicans and Franciscans present. For much of the medieval period Cardiff was functioning merely as a market city for the Vale of Glamorgan with a market granted in 1307, a centre for trade and specialist skills, there was also a small port engaged mainly in exporting of agricultural produce. As a symbol of English presence the city suffered repeated depredations from the Welsh which culminated in Owain Glyndwr's rebellion. The Act of Union (1536-1542) saw the establishment of Glamorgan as a shire and Cardiff as its administrative centre. Despite this honour Cardiff remained a relatively small place with a population on 1801 of under 2,000 which had risen little since 1300. It was modern developments and industrial growth in "the Valleys" that sparked the city's remarkable growth in the 19th century, the Glamorganshire Canal opened in 1794 designed to ease the transportation of Merthyr Tydfil's iron to the port it was followed in 1841 by the Taff Valley railway. It was the actions, however, of the 2nd Marquis of Bute that sparked the astronomical growth opening Bute Dock in 1839,  a second in 1855 and an extension in 1859, with further docks added in 1874 & 1907 Cardiff grew by 1913 to be the biggest coal port in the world. From around 1870 onwards Cardiff's suburbs grew exponentially engulfing the neighbouring rural parishes until today Cardiff sits as the apex of a roughly triangular urban area that stretches from St Fagans in the west to the Monmouthshire border in the east and northwards only enclosed within the course of the modern M4 motorway.From 1914, however, the port slowed into decline as the volumes of iron, tin-plate and coal fell and GKN's steelworks closed by the 1970s the port was almost moribund. In 1993 a controversial plan, authorised by the Cardiff Bay Barrage Bill, created a vast non-tidal expanse where once had been wildlife rich mud-flats, a watery playground for a post-industrial community. Whilst the wildlife has gone the barrage created the drive to regenerate the water-front which is now home to the Welsh Parliament, an opera house and numerous high end dining venues as well as the expected yachting facilities and waterfront spaces. Ecclesiastically Cardiff had two parishes of which only St John was licensed for marriages during the period of this transcript. Cardiff is drained by the Taff to the nearby outer Bristol Channel. Cardiff is sited between sea level and 120 metres in its Thornhill suburbs with land rising to the north to 271 metres on Caerphilly Common and 273 metres on Craig Yr Allt fore-hills of the heights of the industrial valleys. The two parishes combined only covered 1,200 acres, the population of Cardiff during the transcript period was fewer than 2,000 rising by 1979 to over 279,000, a remarkable growth indeed. Like most of Wales Cardiff is not mentioned in Domesday Book which did not cover this area.

The Church

St John's church stands appropriately enough on St John's Street a little to the south of Cardiff Castle and within the largely pedestrianised area of the city's centre, whilst Cardiff is a cathedral city that honour falls to Llandaff and not to St John.St John was originally founded in c1180 as a mere chapel of ease to St Mary but that mother church was destroyed during the catastrophic flood of 1607, believed by many to actually have been a tsunami, leaving St John as the principal church. St John had also met with destruction in 1404 when sacked by Owain Glyndwr's rebellion but was rebuilt during the period 1443 to 1453 entirely in the Perpendicular style. Pevsner is clear, however, that the main 15th century body has been so much renewed and restored as to be almost entirely Victorian today. The church's stand-out feature, however, is its western tower, built between 1473 & 1490 as a 4-stage tower standing 130 feet in height it is built of grey limestone ashlar with buff Dundry stone details. It features pierced openwork battlements and four open Gothic pinnacles reminiscent of West Country and Somerset designs and is a magnificent addition to the city-scape. Pevsner goes into minute detail of the architecture in an account of 3 pages, it is sufficient to say the medieval church was completed as a 5-bay nave, with aisle, and a 2-bay chancel complete with clerestory. The main Victorian changes were largely within 2 phases, the first of 1887 redesigned and rebuilt the chancel whilst that of 1889 to 1891 added outer aisles and a sacristy. Other Victorian work obviously restored and renewed almost the entire church at various times. Like most urban churches St John is one to visit after first using a city car-park, the surrounding area is pedestrianised and there is no fencing or other border around the church, the principal obstacles for the photographer are those of almost every urban church, close adjacent buildings and the hustle and bustle of the streets.