England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Brigstock St Andrew

The Parish

The parish of Brigstock lies in the northeastern portion of central Northamptonshire. Brigstock is located about 5 miles northeast of the market town of Kettering and sits on the former route of the A6116 road which connects Thrapston with Corby (the A6116 now bypasses the village to the east). Brigstock is a substantial village and formerly a small market town although the markets granted by James I lapsed in time. Brigstock is largely built along the old A road and with adjacent lanes largely fills the valley of the small Harper's Brook. The area, at the time of this transcript, would have had a mixed agricultural regime and is gently undulating with many fine hedges and copses (typical English Shire hunting countryside). Harper's Brook drains the parish to the southeast where it joins the Nene to the north of Thrapston and thence exits to the North Sea through The Wash. Brigstock is sited at around 50 metres above the sea but parts of the parish outwith the valley rise to almost 100 metres. By Northamptonshire standards Brigstock parish was a large one, it covered just over 6,000 acres and supported a population of almost 1,300 parishioners. In Domesday times Brigstock was held directly by the King, himself; it offered 8 plough, some meadow & woodland and a mill.

The Church

St Andrew's church sits, appropriately enough, on the western side of Church Street which was the route of the A6116 prior to the bypass. One could not describe St Andrew with out mentioning its highly unusual tower. Pevsner waxes lyrical about this feature which he concludes is Saxon and probably intended to contain more than a staircase although why is a mystery. There was undoubtedly a Saxon church and probably an early Saxon church at that. With origins in the 9th or 10th century the church has, of course, been extensively added to and amended over the centuries, the northern arcade is Norman, from the Decorated period of the early 14th century comes the southern arcade and much of the chancel and much else is of the standard church-building era of the Perpendicular (largely 15th century). The church sits behind a low local stone wall and is partially screened by buildings, a gap in the wall grants access to the churchyard, the churchyard is heavily populated with trees with views only really achievable from the south making photography tricky.