England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
St Ippollytts St Ippollytts

The Parish

If ever there was a parish with so many variations of its name it is St Ippollytts, here we follow modern Ordnance Survey maps which use this spelling but there are variation with the prefix and the number of consonants with the y replaced by an i and also the whole prefixed with an H. The dedication refers to a 3rd century martyr from Sardinia. St Ippollytts is located in northwestern Hertfordshire about 2 miles south of the large market town of Hitchin. St Ippollytts sits about a half mile south of the A602 road which connects Hitchin with both Stevenage and the A1M motorway. St Ippollytts was at one time a substantial village apparently larger than today's mapping shows but as Hitchin has grown nearer its identity is becoming that of one of the town's suburbs. Like many parishes in eastern England St Ippollytts would have been primarily an arable farming community and in the open countryside it remains so today. St Ippollytts is drained northwards by the infant River Purwell which passes east of Hitchin to join the Oughton and in turn the Ivel which in Bedfordshire meets the Great Ouse, all on a long journey to the North Sea arriving through The Wash. St Ippollytts is suited at around 80 metres above the sea with land rising westwards to around 150 metres within a couple of miles. St Ippollytts parish was amongst larger parishes in northern Hertfordshire and covered around 3,000 acres and supporting a population of just over 900 parishioners. St Ippollytts is not specifically mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

St Ippollytts' church sits within the southwestern quadrant of the village's main, staggered, crossroads at the junction of Brookend & Ashbrook Lanes. The church has early origins masked somewhat by a strenuous restoration of the 1870s. The Royal Commission of Historic Monuments commented that "almost the whole church, with the exception of the tower, was rebuilt from the foundations upwards", whilst Pevsner disagrees with that comment it was clearly a major restoration. The story is also clouded as the restoration was done using as much of the original material as was reusable. What remains is sufficient to identify a church of the late 14th and early 15th centuries with both Decorated and Perpendicular styles exhibited, an 11th century-style windows exposed in the southern wall is a curiosity but the piscina also exhibits Early English Gothic styles too indicative of that period. Of the largely intact western tower Pevsner comments that the leaden spike was added in 1636. Ashbrook Lane is sufficiently wide to permit street parking, the churchyard is unfenced and sits above road level with grassy banks descending to the road, entrances at the northern end has steps climbing the slop whilst at the southern end the churchyard is closer to road level and has a lychgate for entry  Once within there are few obstacles for the photographer.