England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Cheshunt St Mary

The Parish

The parish of Cheshunt lies in the extreme south of the county of Hertfordshire forming not only part of the border with neighbouring Essex but also with neighbouring Middlesex. Cheshunt is a substantial town, formerly a market town but that function having fallen into disuse. Cheshunt is located about 16 miles north of London and sits astride the route of the A10 road from London to Cambridge, this road, the ancient Ermine Street of the Romans. Cheshunt was probably established as early as Roman times as a way-station along that route. Cheshunt has had a long history of association with crown, a border town between Mercia & Anglia in the Dark Ages its was home to a palace until this was destroyed following the Civil War. Today Cheshunt is a major town in its own right as well as a significant commuter settlement for the nearby capital. a status greatly aided following the arrival of the London to Cambridge rail-line. Cheshunt stands on the western banks of the Lea and forms part of an almost continuous built-up corridor along that valley from London almost to Hertford. The land around the town was fertile and agriculture would have underpinned the local economy, arable in the main supplemented by market gardening to service the capital. The Lea drains the parish southwards reaching the Thames in the East End of London and thence the North Sea through the Thames Estuary. Cheshunt is sited at around 30 metres above the sea, land rises steadily to local heights around Goff Oak at 100 metres. Cheshunt parish was large by southern standard, it covered almost 8,500 acres and would have supported, at the time of this transcript, a population of around 5,400 parishioners, nowadays significantly higher. In Domesday times Cheshunt was held by Count Alan of Brittany and was a large place even then, it could offer 40 ploughs, extensive pig-dominated woodland and also possessed a mill.

The Church

St Mary's church sits on the western side of Churchgate and close to Cheshunt's other river the "New River" in the old part of the town. The church has copious documentation which dates the building firmly between 1418 & 1448. As such the church, Pevsner remarks, is an "important dated example of Hertfordshire Perpendicular". The standard layout of nave, chancel & western tower is here augmented by 5-bay arcades and an aisle making for a massive church fitting to a town. Whilst this all represents a complete single build, the church has been restored on at least two important occasions, in 1873 a new southern chapel and chancel clerestory were added and a decade later when many internal fittings were replaced. The church sits behind spiked metal railings with a small parking area opposite, the churchyard, approached through a broad kissing gate, has a few evergreens which somewhat restrict the views available to photography.