England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Desford St Martin

The Parish

The parish of Desford lies in the western portion of central Leicestershire roughly 8 miles west of the county city of Leicester. Desford sits on the B582 road, a linking road that connects the former A46 (Roman Fosse Way) through to the A447 (Hinckley to Coalville) arriving just south of Ibstock. Desford is a large village that has grown much larger in relatively recent times, at the time of this transcript the B582 followed the village's Main Street in a convoluted route through, most properties lines that road as it performed two right-angled bends to pass from east to west. Today modern developments has expanded the village, and straightened the route of the B582, such that it forms roughly a circle of a half mile diameter; the southwestern area being the most recent developments. At the time of this transcript Desford would have split its economy two ways, farming and the ubiquitous Leicestershire industry of frame-work knitting, here producing stockings employed roughly 10% of the population. Farming was mixed with pastoral farming in the majority. Modern developments have come to the parish, the railway line between Leicester and Burton upon Trent passing through to its north without granting Desford a station. Desford is drained northeastwards by the infant Rothley Brook which joins the Soar at Rothley before heading onward to meet the Trent and make its long journey to the North Sea arriving though the Humber Estuary. Desford sits on relatively high land at around 130 metres above the sea with local heights barely reaching 10 metres higher in gently undulating terrain. Desford was quite an extensive parish for a lowland rural parish, covering just under 2,400 acres it was perhaps 50% larger than is normal, within that acreage it would have supported a population of close to 1,000 parishioners. In Domesday times Desford was altogether a much smaller place, a single household graced the settlement held by Hugh de Grandmesnil and assets of a single plough were supplemented by small acreages of meadow & woodland, an obscure rural settlement at that time.

The Church

St Martin's church sits on the former route of the B582, the village's Main Street, albeit almost encircled by Church Lane. The church sits on the eastern side of Main Street about 100 metres north of the main intersection of the village centre. Pevsner's account is a little light on dating detail merely referring to the main body as "medieval", he mentions the 13th century three-bay arcade and describes the western tower as Perpendicular without divulging dating. Historic England are a little more forthcoming dating the main body of the church as begun in the late 13th century, followed through the 14th to the Perpendicular tower in the latter half of that century. The reasons for caution are typical, a major restoration of 1884 saw wholesale changes to the fabric, adding vestry and southern porch as well as replacing most of the eastern windows of the chancel and the entire north wall of the nave and its windows, a thorough exercise indeed. Street parking is readily available in both Main Street and Church Lane and it is from the former that a tree-lined path leads readily to the church through the churchyard, a relatively recent expansion of the churchyard southwards enables excellent viewing of the tall tower which would have been difficult prior to that expansion, in short few challenges for the photographer.