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

The Parish

The parish of Spalding lies in southern Lincolnshire not too far from its border with neighbouring Cambridgeshire. Spalding is a large market town, probably the most important market in southern Lincolnshire, located about 10 miles north of the city of Peterborough and a similar distance northwest of the town of Wisbech. Spalding sits on the busy A16 cross-Fenland road which connects Peterborough with Boston on the banks of the River Welland; this route now thankfully bypasses the town to its east making for much less traffic in the town streets. Spalding has ancient origins, Roman remains found in the vicinity indicate their presence but it was the foundation of the Benedictine Priory in 1087 that saw Spalding's growth from small village at the riverside to substantial market town. The priory was, of course, dissolved by Henry VIII but it oversaw the market and owned much of the surrounding rich agricultural lands. Spalding's principal function was as a market for local produce, an inland port it also was well placed to profit from the import of coal and timber as well as exporting grain. Spalding's cattle market grew to become one of the largest in the land although diminished today. In more recent times Spalding became a centre for the bulb growing industry and is surrounded by daffodil & tulip fields. Modern developments saw the Peterborough to Lincoln rail line built through the western edge of the town and much investment in the many Fenland drainage projects. Today Spalding is still a small market for local produce as well as for the bulb & bloom industry. Spalding is drained to the north by the River Welland, much canalised by the hand of man, which reaches the North Sea through the Wash. Spalding is sited at less than 5 metres above the sea despite its distance from the sea and the land is flat for many a mile in every direction. Fenland parishes are often large and Spalding is no exception, it covered almost 12,000 acres and the parish would have supported a population of around 7,800 parishioners. In Domesday times much of Spalding was in the hands of one Ivo Tallboys with lesser holdings for Guy of Craon & the abbey of Crowland, Spalding could offer 22 ploughs, 6 fisheries and 2 salthouses making it a thriving place indeed.

The Church

St Mary & St Nicholas' church sits in the east of the town on the south side of Church Street. Documentary evidence leaves us with a fairly precise date for its foundation, that of 1284 by agreement between the Priory and the citizens of the town. Pevsner goes to quite a length to describe the architectural history of the church but to summarise the building of the 13th century was of a cruciform pattern typical of Norman designs and has grown through the 14th & 15th century additions to this basic layout. The eastern end of the church represents the earliest portion although the basal portions are also early English Gothic in style and Pevsner speculates that the tower was begun as a detached structure. During the Decorated period the connecting portions were added, aisles and arcades added to the existing transepts. Much else is from the Perpendicular period when the nave was lengthened and raised and a clerestory added. A major restoration took place in the middle of the 19th century resulting in today's impressive structure. The church sits in a roughly square-shaped site surrounded by a head-height brick wall, there are numerous entrances around with the main entrance (with impressive metal gates) is at the western end of the site on Church Street. The churchyard has many trees and given the quasi-urban setting it is difficult to get back sufficiently to obtain good photographic angles.