England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Guilsborough St Etheldred

The Parish

The parish of Guilsborough lies in western central Northamptonshire roughly 10 miles northwest of the county town of Northampton. Guilsborough is a large village which sits about a mile west of the A5199 road, it links Northampton through Welford to ultimately Leicester. Guilsborough is built around a crossroads but doesn't so cluster being stretched for 3/4 of a mile from north to south along a broad lane, the village occupies a hill-top ridge between two valleys, tributaries of the River Nene, the easternmost of which contains the small reservoir of Hallowell Reservoir. The area is traditionally one in which pastoral farming tends to dominate the farming regime, early gazetteers place almost 60% of the parish acreage as set to pasture with the remainder largely arable. The local soft red sandstone is also extracted but solely for local use, as is the frequent underlying clay, mainly for brick-making. The small streams merge gradually whilst traveling south and passing through western Northampton to join the Nene, here matters turn east on a long journey to meet the North Sea, arriving through The Wash. Guilsborough is sited at around 170 metres in rolling countryside, the ridge-top on which it sits being some 55 metres higher than Hollowell Reservoir, whilst never what might be considered to be hill-country, it trends to local high points of close to 200 metres. A slightly larger than average parish, Guilsborough covers just over 2,200 acres within which it would have supported a population of close to 950 parishioners. By comparison, in Domesday times, Guilsborough was a minor and insignificant shared holding between Count Robert of Mortain and William Peverel, the former having the slightly larger holding, total assets were a mere 4 ploughs, there was a small meadow and curiously 2 mills.

The Church

St Ethelred's church sits almost at the southern extremity of the village where a narrow lane, Coton Road, heads off southwards to that sister hamlet of Coton. The western tower, complete with its spire is designed in the Early English Gothic style of the 13th century but this is, in fact, mere later copying as the tower & spire has documentary evidence of a completion date if 1618, beware the lancet windows for here they only deceive. In truth the main body of the church, a typical nave & chancel augmented with arcades and in the Decorated style, is the genuine medieval article and dates from the early 14th century. Even here Pevsner points out that the chancel arch, often the oldest part of the main body, is later still and Perpendicular. The raising of the tower and its spire in the 17th century is atypical, this is a period where notable church-building was a rare activity but here the period is well-represented even if derivative. For once Pevsner fails to mention a Victorian restoration beyond the interior fittings of font and reredos, if the normal restoration occurred it was clearly light & sensitive. Whilst Coton Road is narrow it is of sufficient width for careful street parking outside the main wooden gates. Whilst the churchyard is open and uncluttered allowing relative freedom of selection to the photographer, the church is, however, rather closely set to the southern boundary and the better landscape view is, actually, from outside, otherwise there are no obstacles for the photographer.