England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Huntingdon All Saints

The Parish

Huntingdon, the county town of its ancient county, lies almost centrally within that county now sadly dispersed following the 1974 changes to counties in England, Huntingdon today is in Cambridgeshire. Huntingdon is market town and administrative centre located about 18 miles northeast of the city of Cambridge and 59 miles north of London. Huntingdon is a crossroads town, sitting at the crossing of the Great Ouse where the ancient Roman Road of Ermine Street (now followed by the A1198) and that rising from Cambridge met to cross the river. Huntingdon now sits just north of the modern A14 and 3 miles east of the A1 (Great North Road) a setting which creates traffic chaos most rush-hours. In addition the main East Coast rail line (London to Edinburgh) runs through the town. Huntingdon is certainly a pre-Conquest settlement, created as a "burgh" by the Saxons, the Normans added a castle and the monastery attracted the Augustinians. In mediaeval times Huntingdon had no fewer than 16 parish churches, by the time of this transcript the remaining four had unified into just two. All Saints parish (united with St John the Baptist) for the north of the town and St Mary (unified with St Benedict) for the southern portion. Huntingdon was granted a market as early as the 12th century and that function underpinned its economy as a market for local, mainly agricultural, produce. The region of the wider parish is largely devoted to arable farming. Today Huntingdon is a thriving town full of small light industries attracted by its excellent communications to both capital and nearby Cambridge. The Great Ouse drains the town eastwards to eventually reach the North Sea through the Wash. Huntingdon is sited at just 10 metres above the sea, albeit more modern developments to the northeast rise out of the river pains to around 40 metres. This is unspectacular gently rolling countryside and local heights rarely reach to 50 metres for some distance. Collectively the Huntingdon parishes would have equated to a small parish for the area but All Saints (with St John) would have been a rather small parish by local standards. Despite its size All Saints (with St John) would have supported a population of around 1,400 parishioners. In Domesday times Huntingdon was held directly by the King, like many towns it was not specifically detailed as to its assets but taxed at 50 geld units it was clearly a prosperous town even at that time.

The Church

All Saints' church dominates the triangular area of the town's market place with the narrow High Street running just to its east. The church is very much of the Perpendicular style, just fragments of an earlier building remain. Pevsner cites an Early English Gothic period arcade which has been reused to form the base of the Perpendicular northwestern tower. A few windows of the northern aisle show tracery from the slightly earlier Decorated period but the remainder of the church is Perpendicular and probably late 14th century. Changes from the 19th century include the organ chamber and vestry along with the usual Victorian restoration. The church sits in a very urban setting flush to the pavements of the market place and forming the narrowing portion of that triangular area, railings do protect from encroachment but photographically it is best to acquire from outside the compact churchyard.