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

The Parish

The parish of Nettleham lies in western central Lincolnshire roughly 3 miles northeast of the city of Lincoln. Nettleham is a much expanded village which nowadays stretches from the A46 (Lincoln to Market Rasen) road almost eastwards to the A158 (Lincoln to Horncastle). Early maps show the village finishing immediately west of the church whilst to the east there was not much east of the sharp bend on Mill Hill, growth has come largely in the 20th century in response to commuting pressure based upon the village's proximity to the rather crowded city that is Lincoln. Nettleham has consequently expanded to run for over a mile east to west with the northern extremities almost 3/4s of a mile north of the High Street and roughly forming a triangular shape. At the time of this transcript Nettleham would have almost entirely been devoted to arable farming, as are so many such parishes in its county, farming income would have been supplemented by home-based weaving. With Lincoln ever-expanding from its medieval core it is perhaps fortunate that the city's new eastern bypass may form a "line-in-the-sand" preventing Nettleham from becoming engulfed. A series of small brooks and streams drains the parish eastwards joining with the southward running Bealings Eau to join the River Witham close to Bardnet, from here the Witham makes its way to the North Sea. Nettleham is sited at around 25 to 30 metres above the sea in gentle terrain where land rises steadily westwards to reach a little over 60 metres before plunging off the limestone mini-escarpment into the clay-rich basin of the Trent Valley. Nettleham parish was rather large for a Lincolnshire parish, the county is renowned for its tessellated appearance of hundreds of tiny parishes, covering close to 3,300 acres it was almost twice the size of an average southern rural parish, early gazetteers estimate the population at around 850 at the time of this transcript it being much higher today. Even in Domesday times it was a sufficiently large village to place it amongst the top 20% of settlements by population recorded, held directly by King William its assets were just the 14 ploughs needed to furrow the arable land.

The Church

All Saints' church sits on the northern side of the High Street at its junction with Church Street and would, at one time, have marked the western limits of the early village. All Saints is a church largely of the 13th century Early English Gothic which has been modified in both medieval times, during the Decorated & Perpendicular eras, and more recently by the usual Victorian efforts. Best illustrating the Early English Gothic style are the arcades which Pevsner delights in calling "sumptuous". Built initially with 2 bays they were clearly extended by a third bay at a slightly later time. The western tower, too, shows off its Early English Gothic features as well, the lancet window to the western face and the tall and narrow shafted bell-openings clearly referencing that era's typical features. Internally the chancel arch also dates from the 13th century. Medieval additions include the large east window of the chancel in the early 14th century Decorated style whilst in the 15th century a typical Perpendicular styled clerestory was inserted, interestingly the church has already a clerestory from the 13th century then superceded. The typical Victorian restoration came in 1882 and principally tackled the chancel and aisle windows, at the same time the chancel was lengthened to accommodate the already growing congregation. Unfortunately much of that work was undone in 1969 when a fire struck this area of the church, fortunately all has been satisfactorily restored today. The High Street has ample street parking in inset parking bays westwards from the site. The churchyard merely has a knee-height limestone wall pierced by a entryway close to the western edges. From the photographer's point-of-view the churchyard is something of a nightmare being dominated by mature deciduous trees which make a full landscape view almost impossible unless one visits, as I chose, in winter when leaves are off.