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

The Parish

The parish of Knaith lies in the extreme west of Lincolnshire forming a stretch of the county's border with neighbouring Nottinghamshire, here formed by the course of the River Trent. Knaith is located roughly 3 1/2 miles south of the town of Gainsborough and sits on the A156 road which links Gainsborough through to the A57 (Retford to Lincoln) road. Knaith has a few properties on the A156 but most sit on Knaith Hill which heads eastwards from it, nevertheless Knaith is a tiny estate village with most of the parish sitting within the parkland of Knaith Hall. Originally built in the 16th century the hall has been much modified over the centuries even acquiring black-and-white half-timbering together with the church the grounds slope gently down to the Trent. Like most Lincolnshire parishes Knaith is a farming parish and predominantly arable. Modern developments have come to the parish with the Gainsborough to Lincoln railway line passing through the tiny village did once have a station but that closed in 1957. Knaith is drained northwards by the Trent which eventually meets with the Yorkshire Dales rivers to pass into the Humber Estuary and thence the North Sea. Knaith is sited at between 1 and 20 metres above the sea, the hill climbing away from the river, the highest spot around is barely 25 metres above the sea in very gentle terrain. Knaith parish was typically sized for its area covering around 1,400 acres and supporting a population of little more than 50 parishioners. In Domesday times Knaith was equally small if not smaller with just 3 households, held by the Bishop of Lincoln it mustered just 2 ploughs backed by small meadows and patches of woodland.

The Church

St Mary's church stands west of the A156 in the grounds of Knaith Hall, it is accessed by the Hall's driveway and sits between the Hall and the Trent. As Pevsner rightly says it is "a curious building" which he believed was deliberately modified for picturesque purposes in the 17th century. It certainly has ancient fabric as the western wall shows herringbone masonry characteristic of the Saxo-Norman era of the 11th century. The church undoubtedly came originally with the full set of tower and chancel but both have been removed to leave only the former nave, it has 14th century windows of the Decorated era so was probably rebuilt from the earlier version leaving the western wall intact. The 18th century saw arches created internally to segregate a chancel-like end to the church. Finally in 1894 the whole edifice received the customary Victorian restoration. The access leaves the A156 just beyond Knaith Hill, if heading south, and some 1 1/2 miles south of the village of Lea, it is marked by a white signboard which can be hidden by hedging. The church has its own small car park outside the churchyard which is compact with only a few aspects available for the photographer due to surrounding trees.