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

The Parish

The parish of Little Cawthorpe lies in eastern Lincolnshire roughly 3 miles southeast of the market town of Louth. Little Cawthorpe sits just over a half mile west of the meandering A157 road which links Louth with Maltby le Marsh. Little Cawthorpe is in reality merely a southwestern extension of nearby Legbourne, separated from its larger neighbour only by the former Cistercian Abbey site and its earthworks. Little Cawthorpe has a few properties lining the lane which parallels a small stream, Watery Lane with a few more gathered at its western end around the parish church. Little Cawthorpe, like most Lincolnshire parishes, was and is an arable farming parish with cereals dominant on the fertile soils. Little Cawthorpe is drained by its small brook eastwards as a feeder to the Long Eau, the latter headed northeastwards to meet the Great Eau and thence to the North Sea though Saltfleet. Little Cawthorpe is sited at around 30 metres above the sea in gently undulating terrain, a few spots nearby rise above the 100 metres contour especially at nearby Haugham. Little Cawthorpe parish was small even by Lincolnshire standards, it covered just 468 acres and would have supported close to 200 parishioners. Little Cawthorpe is not mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

St Helen's church sits at the junction of Watery Lane and Top Road. Sadly this is not the church in which these marriages too place as it was built to replace the medieval predecessor and completed in 1860. It is a neat simple structure in a red brick with horizontal bands of a blacker brick to create patterns. The main body has both nave and chancel with a steeply pitched slate roof, there is a southern porch. The church's standout feature is its wooden bell-turret at the western end capped with a broach spirelet. Just into Watery Lane a rough path leads to the church providing a parking space too, the formal entrance rises up a flagged pathway to the churchyard, the church is placed too close to the southern boundary for those views to be perfect but all other angles are available for the photographer.