England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Whitwick St John the Baptist

The Parish

The parish of Whitwick lies in northwestern Leicestershire not too far from its border with neighbouring Derbyshire. Whitwick is located about 5 miles east of the market town of Ashby de la Zouch and sits a couple of miles south of the A512 road which connects Ashby de la Zouch with Loughborough. Whitwick sits on the western edges of Charnwood Forest, a geological intrusion of ancient rocks into the normally sedimentary strata of the area, creating an area of poor soils and rougher hilly terrain. Whitwick does also, however, sit above extensive coal measures and towards the latter part of this transcript period mines were sunk and the area developed spectacularly. The industrial town of Coalville grew up to Whitwick's south and what was once a rural area is today covered by housing. The poorer soils of Charnwood Forest were only suitable for pastures, much of the "Forest" being extra-parochial it was a haunt in mediaeval times for banditry, whilst the lower parts of the parish were mainly arable. Today Whitwick is very much a town rather than a village, granted a market in 1838 it is a local centre for shopping and its proximity to the nearby M1 motorway has to some extent mitigated the closure of the coal mines. A series of small brooks drains the parish northwards and then east to join the Soar at the border with Derbyshire, thence to the Trent and eventually the North Sea through the Humber Estuary. Whitwick is sited at around 140 metres but land rises steadily towards the southeast onto the Warren Hills which rise to almost 250 metres. Whitwick parish was one of the larger within the county, it covered just over 6,400 acres, reminiscent of a northern upland parish, and would have supported a population rising towards 4,300 parishioners by the end of this transcript period. In Domesday times Whitwick was a small and wholly insignificant place, held by Hugh de Grandmesnil it could barely register an asset to its name, just a share in a single plough and a small wood.

The Church

St John the Baptist's church sits just to the northwest of the old centre of Whitwick, where Market Place becomes North Street and on the northern side of the latter. The church is essentially a creation of the Decorated period, a style broadly covering the first half of the 14th century. Only the southern doorway, 13th centre in style, and traces of an earlier southern arcade found in 1975 by archaeologists are indicative of anything prior to that century. The western tower, which Pevsner describes as "Stately", is the principal feature and reminiscent of similar period churches in Melton Mowbray & Whissendine in Rutland. The rest of the church has been extensively altered by a whole series of restorations, most notably one of 1848 - 1850 which made an extra eastern bay to both nave and northern aisle and added the staircase on the northern side of the chancel. Further work followed in 1898. The church is built on sloping ground, North Street rising to the northwest, railed fencing is pierced by a gated and tarred path leading to the church. The site has many trees and as a consequence there is some difficulty for photographers in adequately capturing the building.