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

The Parish

The parish of Aswardby lies in eastern Lincolnshire roughly 8 miles east of the market town of Horncastle, Aswardby sits about a mile north of the A168 road which links Horncastle with Skegness. Aswardby is an estate village with land dominated by the holdings of Aswardby Hall, of the village only a small loose aggregation of properties line the lane which passes through. Aswardby would have been a "closed" parish where inbound migration was discouraged and no defined village arose. Estate village economies were dominated by the needs of the Hall's estate, here arable farming would have dominated the activities. Aswardby is drained southeastwards by the River Lyon, shortly after passing Spilsby it is renamed the Steeping River and reaches the North Sea at Gibraltar Point. Aswardby sits at around 40 metres above the sea within the shallow valley formed by the Lyon, land rises away from that valley onto the Lincolnshire Wolds topping out at 113 metres at Warden Hill to the northwest and at 127 metres on the a168 approaching Horncastle. Aswardby parish is one of many of Lincolnshire's tiny parishes, it covered just 744 acres and would have supported between 50 & 100 parishioners. Aswardby is not mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

St Helen's church sits adjacent to the ground of Aswardby Hall reached by following a narrow dead-end lane from its unsigned jumction with the main village lane. As can readily be seen St Helen is no medieval church but it just qualifies as the venue for these marriages as it was completed in 1747 with extensive use of brick on 3 walls. The structure is rather plain and unadorned with only the southern windows prompting much comment from Pevsner who likened them to Dutch styles. Despite the 18th century construction a Victorian restoration still had time to be made, here in 1884, at which time the bell-turret was added as well as a general refresh. The approach lane ends with a broadening allowing a parking space for a car or two, the churchyard is compact with tgrees close to both eastern and western ends making only for a limited set of angles for the photographer.