England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Hemingford Abbots St Margaret

The Parish

The parish of Hemingford Abbots lies in southeastern Huntingdonshire forming a short stretch of the county's border with neighbouring Cambridgeshire. Hemingford Abbots is sited roughly 3 miles southwest and across the Great Ouse from the market town of St Ives. Hemingford Abbots is one of two Hemingfords lining the southern banks of that river with little air gap between them, Hemingford Abbots is the more westerly and is a linear village paralleling the river for over a mile and a mile north of the busy A14 road which links Huntingdon with Cambridge as part of the major highway crossing from the East Coast ports to the motorway network. Hemingford Abbots was almost exclusively an arable parish, early gazetteers estimate around 80% of the parish acreage as set to arable with only a few pastures along the Great Ouse to leaven that domination. The upgrade and recent re-routing of the A14 is the major modern development for the area leaving twin dual-carriageway highways in place. Hemingford Abbots is drained eastwards by the Great Ouse which heads off across Fenland before eventually reaching the North Sea through the Norfolk port of King's Lynn and The Wash. Hemingford Abbots is sited at below 10 metres above the sea with land only gently rising away from the river barely reaching 40 metres within 2 miles of said river in very gentle terrain. Hemingford Abbots parish was extensive, covering just under 2,400 acres large for a southern arable parish, that acreage would have supported a population of around 550 parishioners. In Domesday times Hemingford Abbots was held by Ramsey Abbey, hence the parish name's suffix, its assets of 10 ploughs, a small meadow and a mill indicating a modest mid-sized holding.

The Church

St Margaret's church is accessed by the dead-end lane of Church Lane headed northwards towards the Great Ouse from the village's main thoroughfare. Outwardly the church appears to be the product of Victorian restoration overlain on a largely hidden medieval original. Pevsner's insight reveals a church with its origins in the 13th century and the likelihood of an altogether differing layout. What is nowadays the eastern bay of the arcades reveals building scars which indicate that the church once had a cruciform layout with a central crossing tower rather than the splendid version now sitting at the western end. Cusped lancets indicate Early English Gothic styling from both that era in the 13th century and also from the brief Transitional era around the turn of 1200s into 1300s. The remaking of a western tower is a later phenomenon with Perpendicular styling to the tower with its recessed spire behind pinnacled battlements. A major restoration between 1872 - 1876 is followed by a further one of 1912 which rebuilt the chancel in 19th century yellow brick and added today's southern porch amongst many changes to the outward appearance. Whilst Church Lane if narrow parking is possible alongside the churchyard walling, entrance being by a lychgate at the southeastern corner. Whilst the height of th tower and its spire can cause composition issues there are no obstacles otherwise to trouble the photographer.