England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Old Dalby St John the Baptist

The Parish

The parish of Old Dalby lies on the northern edge of eastern Leicestershire forming a lengthy stretch of the county's border with neighbouring Nottinghamshire. Old Dalby is located roughly 6 miles northwest of the market town of Melton Mowbray and sits a little over 1 mile east of the A46 road (which follows the ancient Roman Route of Fosse Way) linking Leicester with Newark on Trent. Old Dalby is built on slopes rising in a shallow escarpment but is compact and largely consists of a single, climbing lane, with a pair of side branches. To its west Fosse Way forms the straight line of both parish and county boundary. The area is largely famed with pastoral methods dominant in the mix, this gives rise to a characteristic landscape known as "hunting landscape", traditionally used for the now curtailed fox hunting and featuring small and hedged fields. Modern developments have come and gone from Old Dalby, the Melton Mowbray railway line remains largely in situ but no longer continues into Nottingham whilst to the west the A46 has been upgraded to a modern dual carriageway highway. Drainage is characterised by intermittent streams that seem to rise and disappear, it isn't until close to neighbouring Widmerpool that a defined course takes form, the Fairham Brook eventually curving north to meet the mighty Trent on Nottingham's southern edges, the Trent continues east and then north to reach the North Sea through the Humber Estuary. Old Dalby rises westwards from 80 to 100 metres above the sea as it climbs the escarpment, to the south the top is reach at 156 metres close to neighbouring Grimston. Various estimates lie on-line regarding the extent of Old Dalby parish, most place the acreage as between 3,000 and 4,00 acres with 3,400 being the most likely from mapped resources, that acreage would have supported a population of around 400 parishioners. In Domesday times Old Dalby was a similarly sized settlement as today, held by Hubert's son Ralph it offered 8 ploughs supported by typical meadows and woodland.

The Church

St John's church sits on the southern edges of the village at its higher end and on the edges of the semi-parkland estate of Old Dalby Hall, it is reached along the out-and-back lane of Church Lane. Sadly this is not the venue for the vast majority of marriages listed here as the church was not opened for worship until 1836 so most would have been within its medieval predecessor. Consisting of a standard nave with a lower chancel it is augmented with a northern porch, a southern aisle and western tower. Despite the relative recent construction there has been time for restoration in 1894 which particular impacted the internal arrangement as part of a general refresh. Church Lane has a triangular green outside the church with limited on-street parking to the north of the gates, sadly for the photographer the church is seated close to the southern edges of the churchyard where trees and adjacent buildings markedly impact the favoured southern aspects, all other angles are available but make for a difficult target on a sunny day.