England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Orton Longueville Holy Trinity

The Parish

The parish or Orton Longueville lies in the extreme north of Huntingdonshire forming part of the border with neighbouring Northamptonshire. Orton Longueville is located about 2 miles southwest of the Northamptonshire city of Peterborough and lies just west of the A1260 (Peterborough's western bypass) and north of the A1139 (Peterborough's connection to the A1 Great North Road). Once a separate small village nestling on the southern banks of the river Nene, Orton Longueville has become an integral part of the fast-growing conurbation that is modern day Peterborough. Motivated initially by London "overspill", the movement of surplus London population to smaller centres, and latterly by the theories of the "New Town" movement Orton Longueville is now a dormitory settlement of the city. It's economy would, at the time of this transcript, have been dominated by farming, a mixed regime exploiting both the pastures of the Nene valley and the dryer arable hills around, supplemented by quarrying the local ironstone for building and road stone. The Nene drains the parish eastwards, skirting the city of Peterborough, across the Fens to the North Sea through The Wash. Orton Longueville is sited at around 10 metres above the sea, land is flat across the Nene Valley but rises gently westwards to reach local heights of around 50 metres. Orton Longueville parish was originally small, covering just 1,400 acres, in 1707 its absorbed neighbouring Botolph Bridge parish increasing its acreage to 2,400 acres and supporting a population of around 250 parishioners. In Domesday times Orton Longueville was a holding of Eustace the Sheriff, a small and insignificant place of just 3 ploughs and a small meadow.

The Church

Holy Trinity church lies next to the site of Orton Hall, nowadays a hotel complex, a Tudor Gothic mansion formerly home to the Cope family. The church has documentary evidence of its existence dating to 1247 but of that church only the bases of columns remain as a complete rebuild was initiated in 1275. Of the 13th century the northern chapel and tower base are confidently datable, the remainder of the church is in the Decorated style and probably 14th century. The fenestration to the chancel has documentary evidence dating it to between 1330 and 1350 and this seems a perfectly viable date too for the aisles and arcades albeit the southern aisle was widened in 1675. There were the usual restorations of Victorian and later times, 1890s and 1908 - 1909 are mentioned but solely in respect of re-roofing so any refresh was probably light and sensitive. The main road past the church has the confusing name of The Village and the church sits on the western immediately south the hotel. The road is narrow but there is space to park at the southern end of the site where a diagonal path leads into the churchyard through a pair of wooden gates. Sadly many trees cluster around the western end of the building making for a tricky piece to fully acquire.