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

The Parish

The parish of Ruskington lies in southern central Lincolnshire about 3 miles north of the market town of Sleaford. Ruskington is a large village, almost a town itself in size, which sits a mile north of the A153 road which connects Sleaford through to Horncastle. The "old road" from Sleaford to Lincoln, nowadays the B1188 passes through Ruskington performing a series of sharp right-angles bends to pass through, most properties lies either side of this thoroughfare or along the lane which parallels it on an east to west axis. Ruskington is one of a series of villages which lie at the edge of Lincolnshire's Fens, where the land starts to rise out of those, largely reclaimed, flat-lands. The setting gave Ruskington access to both drier and wetter soils giving a mixture of largely arable farming, cereals on the drier land whilst the rich Fenland soils lend themselves to vegetable production, a feature to this day. Modern developments have come to the parish, the short-lived Sleaford Canal passed to the east as does the railway line from Sleaford to Lincoln, giving Ruskington a station. Drainage is largely man-influenced but the route of the River Slea can be roughly traced between the drainage channels, reaching the River Witham and the North Sea through the port of Boston. Ruskington is sited at just 10 metres above the sea, land continues to rise westwards onto the Jurassic limestone, a gentle progress which takes well over 2 miles to reach 50 metres. In an area of small parishes Ruskington stands out as one of the larger, covering 3,600 acres it would have supported a population of around 950 parishioners. In Domesday times Ruskington was an equally substantial place, largely held by one Geoffrey Alselin it could offer 12 ploughs, meadows and substantial woodland, a rarity in today's landscape, and 3 profitable mills making it amongst the largest 20% of settlements recorded within the book.

The Church

All Saints' church sits at the heart of Ruskington, not on the B1188 but on the main junction immediately to its north where the parallel route of High Street meets Church Street, the church sits to the west of Church Street. Whilst the church undoubtedly has ancient origins a mixture of disaster and restoration has removed much of that early fabric. Within the largely Victorian exterior sits, as the oldest part, a Norman Romanesque tower arch of the 12th century. Furthermore the chancel arch and much of the chancel that hasn't been rebuilt shows the early English Gothic style of the early 13th century. A few traces also remain of the Decorated style of the late 13th century, notably in the arcades. The disaster which befell All Saints was the collapse of the previous western tower in the early years of the 17th century, the rebuild carries a date of 1620. Finally came the work of the Victorian restorers and, here, the work was extensive, two campaigns of 1861 and 1873 largely rebuilt the exterior and hid those early details for the architectural historians to reveal internally. Street parking is available opposite the commercial properties of High Street, the church faces you as you walk west towards the site. The churchyard has a low local stone wall with gates facing High Street, sadly it also has many mature trees notably a large example stealing the favoured southeastern aspect and seriously limiting the angles available to the photographer.