England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Wycomb & Chadwell St Mary

The Parish

The chapelry of Wycomb & Chadwell, its mother parish being the somewhat distant Rothley, lies in northeastern Leicestershirw within that portion of the county which projects between Nottinghamshire & Rutland and borders Lincolnshire. Wycomb & Chadwell are twin small villages which lie about 6 miles north of the market town of Melton Mowbray and sit a couple of miles west of the A607 road which connects Melton Mowbray with the Lincolnshire town of Grantham. Chadwell is the slightly larger village and holds the church but both are rather small. This area of the county is traditional "hunting country" with largely pastures set between tall hedges albeit more and more is sqitching to arable with the advent of modern machinery. Modern developments came and went from the twin villages with a branch railway line connecting Melton Mowbray with Grantham running between the two but has nowadays disappeared. Small streams drain the joint parish southwards to meet the River Eye at Melton Mowbray turning westwards, the latter becomes the Wreake and joins the Soar and finally the Trent before reversing back east and then north on a long journey to the North Sea arriving through the Humber Estuary. Both villages are sited at around 120 metres above the sea in rolling countryside which rises a further 20 metres or so to a local height to the south. The acreage of the chapelry is one of the smaller in its county, incidentally it was abolished and merged with nearby Scalford in 1936, covering just under 800 acres it would have supported a population of barely 100 parishioners. In Domesday Book neither village is detailed themselves being rendered within a vast entry for eastern Leicestershire all held directly by King William, their assets cannot be separately identified.

The Church

St Mary's church sits on the northwestern edge of Chadwell on the lane connecting it with Wycomb. As is often the case remote country churches in small villages tend to hold early churches which have escaped the ravages of the later restorers, this is certainly the case with St Mary which remains largely from pre-1300. Round arches within the northern arcade mark this portion as 12th century and Norman Romanesque in style. Other portions, notably the western tower and chancel show the slightly later Early English Gothic style which flourished in the early part of the 13th century. The lancet windows of the chancel and the octagonal shafted bell-openings of the tower show this style to good effect. A restoration of the 1860s did take place but thankfully it was relatively light even if Pevsner characteristically describes it as "miserable". Whilst the lane is rather narrow a gravelled parking area can be found outside the gates at the western end of the site. A rather ramshackle and tumbledown local stone wall surrounds the churchyard which has relatively few obstacles for the photographer.