England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Canwick All Saints

The Parish

The parish of Canwick lies in central Lincolnshire about 2 miles southeast of the county city of Lincoln. Canwick, once a small agricultural settlement grouped around its Hall, is now little more than a commuter settlement for the nearby city. Canwick sits on a high bluff above the town and a half mile south of the B1190 road which heads from Lincoln to Bardney, paralleling the River Witham. Lincoln sits within a gap in the chalk ridge cut by the Witham, Canwick perches on that ridge overlooking the city. Like many Lincolnshire villages Canwick would have had a largely arable farming regime supporting its economy and beyond the modern developments within the parish little has changed. Sitting on the porous chalk there is no surface drainage within Canwick most water making its way by percolation to the nearby Witham and southeast to the North Sea through the port of Boston. Canwick is sited at around 50 metres above the sea, small but by Lincolnshire standards an impressive height, and since the Witham is close to sea level it represents the local high point as land falls away gently on the dip slope to the east. Canwick parish was fairly typically sized for its area, covering just over 2,000 acres it would have supported a population of close to 200 parishioners. In Domesday times Canwick was shared by no fewer than 6 landholders, including one Kolgrim, probably a Saxon relic, and the wonderfully named Norman the Fat. Collectively all these small holdings aggregated to 12 ploughs, substantial meadows and no fewer than 5 fisheries.

The Church

All Saints' church is tucked away within and behind surrounding properties and is accessed by narrow pathways through the houses. Because of many restorations the exterior was felt by Pevsner to be uninteresting, the interior, however, shows a complicated history of build and change. The church has remaining fabric from the Norman Romanesque period of the 12th century represented chiefly by the two bay northern arcade and the chancel arch, usually the oldest feature of the church and forming the base of building outward. The arch from chancel to the northern chapel is Early English Gothic whilst much of the nave is Decorated in style and results from the lengthening that took place in the 14th century. Even as late as the Georgian period modifications were taking place, the bell-openings of the tower are from that period. The church is best approached from Hall Drive where a gravelled pull-in allows room for a car, from here a similarly gravelled pathway leads through the 100 metres or so to the churchyard, sadly the bordering trees are tight to the southern aspect leaving a difficult subject to photograph in sunny weather.