England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Sutton St Nicholas

The Parish

The parish of Sutton St Nicholas lies almost centrally in Herefordshire and sits roughly 4 miles northeast of the county city of Hereford. Sutton St Nicholas lies some 2 miles northwest of the A465 road which connects Hereford with Bromyard. In reality there are twin parishes intimately connected, Sutton St Nicholas & Sutton St Michael. Sutton St Nicholas is by far the larger being a substantial crossroads village lying on the edge of the floodplain of the River Lugg, Sutton St Michael is merely the northwestern extension of the main village, albeit containing its own parish and church. The village's position on the edge of the valley of the Lugg gave it access to rich pastures for the traditional Herefordshire beef cattle whilst drier ground eastwards gave the typical mixture of smaller pastures with traditional orcharding as well as small arable patches. Sutton St Nicholas is drained southwards by the River Lugg which soon meets the Wye to the southeast of Hereford, the Wye then commences its long journey to the outer Bristol Channel arriving through the port of Chepstow, Sutton St Nicholas is sited at around 60 metres above the sea, rather curiously to its northwest lies Sutton Walls, topped by an intricate Iron Age hill fort and topping out at 100 metres, higher isolated tops exist further away to the northeast notably Cheat Hill at 123 metres all isolated knolls. Statistics for the individual parishes of this twin are hard to come by, I estimate based upon Phillimore's mapping that Sutton St Nicholas covered close to 1,000 acres and probably supported a population of around 200 parishioners. As ever the twin parishes were recorded in Domesday Book as a single entity, shared between the amusingly named Hugh the Ass and one Nigel, a doctor, the joint assets amounted to 9 ploughs backed by 2 profitable mills.

The Church

St Nicholas' church sits on the southern side of Ridgeway Road near the southeastern end of the village. The church has very early origins, best seen internally where Pevsner identifies rounded rere-arches in the nave and roll-moulded jambs to the southern doorway both signs of late Norman, 12th century in origin. He speculates that the chancel arch was, too, begun in the 12th century as its imposts are of this style albeit the remainder was completed or rebuilt early into the 13th century. Lancet windows of the Early English Gothic style abound in the chancel confirming this is a 13th century piece although afew were clearly replaced in the subsequent 14th century too. As the western tower is also 13th century in origin it is likely the basic layout was entirely completed during that century with later modification, indeed the tower once carried a spire but this had to be removed for safety in the 1730s. The latest medieval piece is the timber-framed northern porch which is clearly of the late 14th or early 15th century. A typical Victorian restoration came, here, in 1859 where work on the restoration of the 2-bay arcade dominated the work. Either Ridgeway Road or the side lane that runs southeast are acceptable for parking, entry to the churchyard being by wooden gates at that junction. Sadly for the photographer the church lies embedded within trees which remove all of the favoured southern aspects from the photographer;s portfolio leaving only views from the north and making for a challenge on a sunny day.