England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Mowsley St Nicholas

The Parish

The parish of Mowsley lies in southern Leicestershire not too far from the border with neighbouring Northamptonshire. Mowsley is located roughly 6 miles west of the market town of Market Harborough and sits just under a mile east of the A5199 road which links Leicester with Husbands Bosworth and onward to Northampton. Up until 1660 Mowsley was a chapelry of Knaptoft but thereafter the roles were reversed. Mowsley is a small and compact village largely built around a T-junction of lanes with most properties lining the Main Street north of that junction, Knaptoft is largely a deserted medieval village with just a few farms, cottages and the ruins of its church. The area around Mowsley is what is often termed "hunting landscape", small fields with tall hedges, many copses and largely pastoral. Modern developments graze the southern edges of the parish, the Grand Union Canal passing through but staying south of the higher ground of Mowsley Hills. Mowsley is drained northeastwards by the Mowsley Brook, after it joins the Langton Brook water heads eastwards to meet the River Welland at the Northamptonshire border, the Welland heads into Fenland and eventually reaches the North Sea through The Wash. The parish of Mowsley covered 1,100 acres and would have supported a population, separate of Knaptoft, of close to 250 parishioners. In Domesday times Mowsley was a tiny place offering merely 2 ploughs backed by a small meadow.

The Church

St Nicholas's church sits on the eastern side of Main Street roughly midway through the village. The church is almost unusual in being built almost entirely in a single campaign. Nave, chancel and transepts are all built in the Early English Gothic style of the 13th century, Pevsner narrows it down to the middle or later end of that century. The church is relatively simple, without aisles lacking a chancel arch, both the arches to the transepts, however show the characteristic double-chamfered heads and moulded capitals of that era. Other than the 13th century fabric there are additions in Victorian times, the bellcote was added in 1860 and a thorough restoration tackling the walls, roofs and internal fittings was conducted in 1882-3. Main Street is amply wide enough for on-street parking outside the churchyard. Sadly for the photographer the church is rather beset with trees, all of the favoured southern aspects being impacted as well as the western end of the church, only a few views remain for the photographer.