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

The Parish

The parish of Markfield lies in the western portion of central Leicestershire roughly 7 miles northwest of the city of Leicester. Markfield sits immediately south of the A50 road which links Leicester through to Ashby de la Zouch. Markfield is a much expanded settlement, early maps show a linear settlement heading southwest from the course of the A50 for a little over a half mile, whilst that core and Main Street which forms it remains today the village has expanded considerably to the southeast with many modern developments. For the greater part of its existence Markfield has been a farming community, a mixture of both arable and pastoral methods in roughly equal proportion, in addition the local stone (Known as Markfieldite) was extensively quarried for local building and road-stone. The 18th century saw the beginning of industrialisation with the local specialty of Frame Work Knitting becoming prevalent, in addition the quarrying began to be on a much larger and commercialised scale, some quarries remain in production even today whilst others are flooded. Modern developments have arrived in abundance, to the west of the village runs the modern M1 notorway en route from London to Leeds whilst the A50, which forms an important connection between Leicester and the north-bound M1 motorway, has been upgraded to fast dual-carriageway highway, the two encircling Markfield and forming a major junction to its northwest. Markfield is drained southwards by small streams which merge into the Rothley Brook and then head northeast joining the Soar and eventually northwards to meet the Trent, the long journey of that river heads initially east and finally north to meet the North Sea through the Humber Estuary. Markfield is sited between 170 and 200 metres above the sea, the village is overlooked by the knoll immediately west summitting at 222 metres, further north into Charnwood Forest Beacon Hill at 248 metres forms the local high point. Markfield parish was typically sized for this area covering a little over 2,500 acres it would have supported a population of close to 1,200 parishioners. Domesday Markfield was a tiny place, a holding of Countess Judith with only 2 households and just a small woodland patch as an asset.

The Church

St Michael's church stands on the western side of The Green which runs parallel with the Main Street and to its west. St Michael is a church where the medieval has been overlain by successive 19th century expansions such that the original medieval church has merely become the southern aisle of today's church. That medieval church has early masonry, zigzag fragments in the nave's southern wall, which indicate it has been here since the 12th century being Norman Romanesque in style. The tower was constructed to the west of the original nave, now being southwest to the modern church, in the early 14th century, it shows the Decorated style and is topped with battlementation and a short spire. The first extension came in the Georgian era when 1826 the northern aisle was enlarged northwards. This limited change was incorporated into the much larger expansion of 1865 which has enlarged the church to both the west and east. In between these two phases the church was given a southern porch in c1830. The Green has ample room for on-street parking outside the cast-iron gates of c1826. The photographer may be frustrated to find a large tree sitting in the favoured southeastern position but all other angles are readily available.