England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Saddington St Helen

The Parish

The parish of Saddington lies in southern Leicestershire not too far from the county's border with neighbouring Northamptonshire. Saddington is located roughly 6 miles northwest of the market town of Market Harborough and sits around 3 miles west of the A6 road which connects Market Harborough with Leicester. Saddington is a small and compact village, the streets largely form a lying-down "H" as two lane meet in a staggered crossroads through the centre. Saddington would have been, and indeed still is, largely a pastoral farming village in classic "hunting countryside" where thick hedging parcels up small fields of largely cattle. Modern developments have come to Saddington, the Grand Union Canal from London to Birmingham cuts through the area and such was the height of Saddington that it required a reservoir to be constructed, south of the village, to supply its water. This reservoir took advantage of the infant River Welland's tribuatry that drains the parish eastwards, the Welland eventually passing through Stamford and Spalding to reach the sea through The Wash. Saddington sits on a knoll of high ground at around 140 metres above the sea, whilst Smeaton Hill to the south over-tops it by 17 metres as the highest ground around. Saddington parish was fairly typically sized for its area, covering just under 1,700 acres it would have supported a population of close to 300 parishioners. In Domesday times Saddington was a direct holding of King William and was an equally rural settlement offering just 9 ploughs and a small meadow, although there was a mill.

The Church

St Helen's church sits at the southern end of the village on the eastern side of Main Street and just south of the village inn, the Queen's Head. Varied ages of fabric can be found, like in most churches, the earliest part being the northern doorway which Pevsner assigns to the 13th century as a result of its Early English Gothic architectural style. The doorway is followed closely in time by the nave which is given the tentative date of c1300 and is of the Decorated style, it is likely that the western tower's basal portion carries this date too. The classic Perpendicular period saw the addition of a clerestory, a typical feature of that period designed to improve internal lighting, whilst the upper stages of the tower were rebuilt at that time, the late 14th century. The western tower originally carried a spire but this was removed for safety in 1707. Like most churches a substantial Victorian restoration is documented in work described by Pevsner as "heavy and unsympathetic". Main Street is sufficiently wide to allow street paring outside the heavily shaded churchyard, iron gates adjacent to the riding school forming the main entrance. Whilst the western end of the church is clearly in view, trees rather hem in that eastern portion removing the favoured southeastern aspect from the photographer.