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

The Parish

The parish of Therfield lies in the extreme northeast of Hertfordshire forming a lengthy stretch of the county's border with neighbouring Cambridgeshire. Therfield  is located just under 3 miles southwest of the market town of Royston and sits a little over a mile west of the A10 road which connects Royston with Ware. Therfield  is a mid-sized and compact village with most properties built around a double-oblong of lanes running from northwest to southeast. Therfield has much ancient history around it, between Therfield  and Royston on Therfield  Heath archaeologists have located many Neolithic long barrows all in association with the ancient trackway of Icknield Way (now a local trail which passes through the village) which together with the Ridgway follows the chalk all of the way to the Wiltshire concentration of ancient edifices, In addition there are the 3 mile ditches which traverse the heath, these are Iron Age and once lay across that ancient route-way stretching from the impenetrable Fen as far as the thick forest that once occupied the chalk, their function was clearly to control traffic along Icknield Way. In this area of the county the underlying chalk beds were almost parallel to the land surface so we do not see the dramatic escarpments of further west, the result was easily worked land which quickly became intensely arable, a fact clearly seen today when most hedgerows have been removed and vast cereal fields dominate the landscape. Therfield is drained westwards by a tributary of the Cat Ditch, the latter eventually meeting the River Ivel south of Biggleswade and quickly in turn the Great Ouse before reaching the North Sea through The Wash. Therfield stands on relatively high ground at 160 metres above the sea there being  none higher for many miles. Therfield  parish was extensive covering almost 4,800 acres and that acreage would have been densely populated by 1,200 parishioners. In Domesday times Therfield was a holding of Ramsey Abbey whilst its population of 52 households was sufficient to place it in the largest 20% of settlements by population its assets were more meagre, just 13 ploughs and a small tract of woodland.

The Church

St Mary's church sits to the southwest of the village at the end of Church Lane. Sadly this church that stands here today is not the venue for these marriages as it is a late-Victorian replacement for Therfield's medieval predecessor and was only completed in 1878. Only the chancel's Decorated styled windows were reused in what was a complete rebuild albeit Pevsner speculates that the nave arcades are direct copies of the previous incarnation. Despite the modern nature there has been time for change, a southern porch was added in 1906 and the western tower was only completed in 1911. Whilst Church Lane is narrow there is room for parking at its easternmost end, passing a thatched white house will result in inevitable reverse manouevres. Once within the churchyard there are no obstacles whatsoever for the photographer.