England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Brockhall St Peter & St Paul

The Parish

The parish of Brockhall lies in western Northamptonshire about 4 miles east of the market town of Daventry. Brockhall sits, in lanes, about 2 miles north of the A45 which connects daventry with Northampton. There is very little to Brockhall, as a "closed parish" dominated by a single landholder who controlled entry no formal village was allowed to develop. Today just Brockhall Hall, a handful of estate cottages and the church form the sole properties within the parish. Communications both ancient and modern, however, pass nearby, the oldest the Roman Watling Street forms the western boundary of the parish and is now the A5, the Grand Union canal follows a similar route as does the London to Birmingham rail line & to top it all the modern M1 motorway also squeezes through the upper Nene valley. At the time of this transcript Brockhall would have been a farming community dominated by the estate with a mixed farming regime, today little has changed. The Nene drains the parish southwards then east on its long journey to the North Sea reached through The Wash. Brockhall is sited at around 110 metres above the sea on rising ground; the gently undulating countryside based on oolitic limestone rises to local heights of around 150 metres nearby. Brockhall parish was one of Northamptonshire's smallest, it covered just 850 acres and supported a population of just over 50 parishioners. In Domesday times Brockhall was held by Count Robert of Mortain and was equally tiny, it could offer just 2 ploughs and a small meadow.

The Church

St Peter & St Paul's church sits close to the hall on the western side of the narrow lane that passes through the estate, it forms an attractive grouping with Hall & cottages. The church has very early origins, Pevsner is quick to point out 12th century features in the form of the southern doorway and two bays of the southern arcade. Much else shows the early English Gothic style of the early 13th century with lancet windows in the western tower and southern aisle. Of course the Victorians made significant changes, in 1874 they organised a complete rebuild of the chancel as part of a general restoration. A tiny green marks the entry to the church, a wooden gateway allowing entry, the churchyard has relatively few obstructions allowing photography of the building from most angles, the honeyed limestone appearing splendid in early evening sunlight.