England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Tottenham All Hallows

The Parish

The parish of Tottenham lies in northeastern Middlesex roughly 4 miles north of the City of London and forming a stretch of the county's border with neighbouring Essex. Tottenham sits on the A10 road which links London with Cambridge and which follows the route of the Roman Ermine Street. Tottenham is a town which has seen much change, originally a discrete village sitting astride the A10 it developed as a strip of properties along that road with its church sitting some quarter mile to the west. Even as late as the 18th century it was unconnected with the City of London except by road and a scatter of small built areas through Hackney, open fields dominated the area to the west and north of the town. What are now integral parts of the parish were once small villages culled from the surrounding forest, surviving village greens turn up still in unexpected places, West Green, Duckett's Common and Bounds Green are still recognisable as former village centres. A sudden spurt of growth in property was caused in 1831 by the completion of Seven Sisters Road which linked Tottenham with the West End and lead to a growth in mansions in the town. It was the coming of railways that grew Tottenham spectacularly in population rising 7-fold in the 19th century as a consequence. Industry also arrived in the town to give employment to these new incoming folk, flour & oil mills, a brewery and a plant making use of the new-fangled India-rubber ave employment to many. Today Tottenham is an integral part of the Greater London Urban Area, the open fields to the north are now gone as part of an extensive urban area fringing the Lea Valley and reaching out to as far as Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire. Tottenham is drained by the River Lea which eventually meets the outer Thames at Blackwall before the latter flows onward to the North Sea. Tottenham is sited between 10 & 20 metres above the sea in gentle terrain where higher ground rises northwestwards reaching 80 metres in High Barnet. Tottenham parish was extensive, covering just over 4,400 acres and supporting a growing population, the volume of marriages recorded is typical of an average population of around 3,500 during the period of this transcript which has already reached over 6,000 at its end, by 1897 it was recorded at over 97,000 and today around 158,000 reflecting its complete urbanisation, a sea of housing much added to in the 20th century. Even in Domesday Tottenham was sufficiently large to be placed amongst the largest 20% by population of settlements recorded in that book, its 66 households being, however, a mere shadow of today's situation; held by Countess Judith its assets of 24 ploughs were backed by meadows and extensive woodlands inhabited by hundreds of pigs.

The Church

All Hallows church stands west of the High Street on Church Lane and backed by the Municipal Cemetery stretching north to White Hart Lane. Whilst All Hallows does have remaining medieval parts there is much which dates from the Victorian work. The earliest remaining portion is the western tower of four stages and Perpendicular in style from the 14th century, even this medieval structure is not spared later work as its battlements are 18th century additions. The southern aisle is the main remaining medieval piece from the late 15th century built in Kentish Rag-stone and adorned with turret above its rood loft. The equivalent northern aisle is a Georgian replacement having been completed in brick in 1816. The whole eastern end of the church is, however, later still dating from an extensive campaign running from 1875 to 1877. This piece was controversial in its day and remains so, Pevsner describing it as "picturesque but hard-edged", a melange of low transepts and vestries in a red brick. Like most urban churches this is one to visit on foot it only being a short walk from nearby rail and tube stations. The presence of the Municipal Cemetery allows unrestricted views from the north but the favoured southern aspects are partially obscured by many trees, a challenge for the photographer.