England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Loddington St Michael

The Parish

The parish of Loddington lies in the extreme southeast of Leicestershire forming a stretch of the county's border with neighbouring Rutland. Loddington is located roughly 7 miles northwest of the Rutland market town of Uppingham and sits a little over a mile north of the A47 road which links Peterborough with Leicester. Loddington is a loosely aggregated crossroads village with most properties gathered around a junction north of its late 17th century Hall. The area is a mixture of small walled or hedged fields with many copses and wooded strips, the undulating terrain and farming infrastructure best described as typical "hunting countryside". The local ironstone was quarried for local use but the main economic force was farming and mainly pastoral. Modern developments have come and gone from the parish, a branch railway line linking Uppingham with Melton Mowbray having closed and left only bridges & cuttings to mark its former presence. Loddington is drained southwestwards by a small tributary of the Eye Brook which is soon joined taking water back southeast, after passing through Eyebrook Reservoir the Welland is joined for its Fenland journey to reach the North Sea through The Wash. Loddington is sited at around 130 metres above the sea in undulating countryside, the local high spot stands on the Rutland border to the south of Launde Park Wood and reaches 191 metres. This area of the county has quite a few small parishes, Loddington was not one of those it covered 2,000 acres and would have supported a population of close to 150 parishioners. Domesday Loddington was a holding of Robert de Bucy offering 6 ploughs, typical meadows & woodland and a mill, in short a straightforward rural farming manor.

The Church

St Michael's church sits some way from its village, accessed from the Loddington Lane by track it sits adjacent to a copse containing the route of the defunct branch railway line. The church has fabric of the earliest times in the form of its southern doorway which shows the round arch characteristic of the 12th century Norman Romanesque period. That 12th century survival is not matched in the remaining fabric which is spread over the 13th to 15th centuries. Both the basal stages of the western tower together with the southern aisle are late 13th century from the Geometrical portion of the Early English Gothic era, roughly the last 50 years of that century. The tower's build extended into the early 14th century as it has Decorated styled bell-openings. The Decorated styling is continued with the 3-bay arcades. The 15th century saw a typical feature of the Perpendicular era added, a clerestory to improve internal lighting. Pevsner records a Victorian restoration of 1859 but describes in as "unexceptional". As Loddington Lane heads for the A47 two tracks leave it on more westerly routes, the southern track heads for Loddington Mill, the northern to the parish church where some parking is possible. The churchyard is surrounded on all sides by thick tree cover with the exception those aspects favoured by the photographer leaving southeastern and southern views available.