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

The Parish

The parish of Morborne lies in the extreme northwest of Huntingdonshire forming a short stretch of the border with neighbouring Northamptonshire. Morborne is located about 7 miles southwest of the city of Peterborough and sits just under 2 miles west of the Great North Road, the now upgraded former A1 (London to Edinburgh) nowadays the A1M motorway. Morborne is a tiny place, a cluster of farms and cottages around a right-angled bend in a narrow lane which wanders from Folksworth to Warmington, it's too small for there to be any remaining village facilities. In this relatively flat and fertile area Morborne was a typical arable farming village and, today, little has changed with cereals, beet and oil-seed dominating in vast open fields where hedgerows have been denuded.  Morborne is drained eastwards by small tributaries of the River Nene the "old course" of which is eventually reached after passing through a confusion of flooded former gravel & brick pits, the Nene proper is joined and eventually reaches the North Sea through The Wash. Morborne is sited at around 25 metres above the sea in relatively flat terrain where the low hill of Ashton Wold to the southwest at 69 metres is something of a local high point. Morborne parish was relatively small even for a lowland arable parish, covering just over 1,100 acres it would have supported merely around 100 parishioners. In Domesday times Morborne was equally rural and relatively small, a holding of Crowland Abbey it offered 7 ploughs together with some meadows & woodland.

The Church

All Saints' church sits on the southern side of Morborne's lane as it heads westward toward Warmington, it hides a little behind a fronting property.All Saints has its origins in the 12th century, the product of Crowland Abbey's benefice, dating for this time is surprisingly detailed with Pevsner placing the chancel arch as c1140 and both priest's and main southern doorways as c1190. The 12th century Norman Romanesque style being shown rather well in the former's big scalloped capitals and rope-moulding. Slightly later are the arcades with the northern preceding the southern by some 20 years and both dated around the middle of the 13th century when Early English Gothic styling was in vogue. Wall painting within the chancel have been dated to the mid 13th century too and it is likely the main body of the church was substantially completed by this date. Like most churches changes in more modern times have been made, the signature piece is the brick western tower of the early 17th century whilst restorations in both 19th (in 1864) and early 20th (in 1902) centuries also made their mark. The narrow lane, The Green, is tricky for parking and care is needed although the lane carries very little traffic. Entry to the churchyard lies to the west of the prominent property where a driveway leads on to a footpath crossing the churchyard which is open and uncluttered with few obstacles for the photographer.