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

The Parish

The parish of Tetford lies in eastern LKincolnshire roughly 6 miles northeast of the market town of Horncastle. Tetford sits within an area devoid of significant numbered roads, the closest such road being the A158 road linking Horncastle with Skegness which lies over 4 miles to its south. Tetford is a mid-sized village built loosely around an inclined oval of lanes, two distinct clusters of properties lie either side of the intervening course of the small stream, the Double Dike, with the main cluster huddled west of the church & inn. Like most Lincolnshire parishes arable farming dominated the local economy although the local stone was also quarried mainly for burning as lime for fertilising the fields. Tetford is drained eastwards by the Double Dike which, after merging with a number of similar streams becomes the Great Eau heading northeast to reach the North Sea at Saltfleet. Tetford is sited at around 50 metres above the sea and sits on shallow valley between undulating hills of the eastern Lincolnshire Wolds which rise to 142 metres to the north on Tetford Hill site of many of the parish's quarries, Bluestone Heath Road giving a substantial clue to the nature of the underlying geology. Tetford parish was typically sized for its area covering a little over 1,700 acres and supporting a population of close to 750 parishioners. Tetford's Domesday entry is a hotch-potch of two styles of entry, one a typical record for a small village, the other a record for an entire landholder's assets in a particular region, thus it is impossible to determine the exact nature of that manor; the Archbishop of York's holding of 4 ploughs, meadows & woodland together with a mill seems to correlate more readily with today's village than Earl Hugh's 39 ploughs, meadows & woodland and 9 mills which clearly does not.

The Church

St Mary's church sits at the northeastern corner of the village standing within the junction of East Road & Church Lane with open fields to its east. Pevsner's review of the architecture reveals an Early English Gothic origin but with a much later medieval rebuild in the Perpendicular era. The aisles show bases to the arcade piers and a lancet window which all date from the 13th century, the piers which stand upon those bases, however, are 14th or early 15th century Perpendicular piers. This change is contemporary with the construction of today's western tower which, too, is in the Perpendicular style and built in the local green-stone, a most attractive colour in early evening sunshine. The nave, too, shows signs of later medieval expansion with a Perpendicular clerestory inserted to improve internal lighting leaving a building scar for the former roof-line. The northern aisle has a rather chequered history, built in the same medieval period it was removed in 1770 but rebuilt again in 1826. Restoration came not in the typical Victorian period but in 1910 in Edwardian style. East Road has sufficient width & little traffic permitting on-street parking outside the metal gates. The churchyard is above road height with a sloping pathway rising into it, whilst it is compact there is adequate space to the south for the better aspects to be available to the photographer.