England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Great Harrowden All Saints

The Parish

The parish of Great Harrowden lies in eastern central Northamptonshire roughly 2 miles north of the market town of Wellingborough. Great Harrowden sits on the A509 road which connects Wellingborough with Kettering and is a crossroads small village with most properties sitting both east & west of that road. Great Harrowden is a rather small place, ironically smaller then its near neighbour Little Harrowden, it was an estate village with most land owned by Earl Fitzwilliam a state which discouraged inbound migration and the formation of a substantial village. The parish was dominated by the 17th century hall and its formal gardens. Like most estate villages the economy was underpinned by the requirements of the estate, here arable farming was the main source of revenue. Modern developments have come to Great Harrowden with the railway line connecting Wellingborough with Kettering running to its east without granting Great Harrowden a station. From the village a little brook heads east to meet the River Ise which runs south to meet the Nene to the east of Wellingborough, the Nene eventually reaches the North Sea through The Wash. Great Harrowden is sited at around 90 metres above the sea in gently rolling countryside, land rises gently westwards to almost reach 140 metres at nearby Hardwick Wood. Great Harrowden parish was fairly typically sized at close to 1,400 acres within which it would have supported a population of around 150 parishioners. Great Harrowden is not mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

All Saints' church sits immediately east of the A509 set into the lane running eastwards, The Slips. Whilst the church has ancient origins very little remains of those earliest periods following much change over the centuries. In the western wall of the nave is the earliest fabric, 12th century Norman Romanesque  styling in the remains of a window, the responds of the tower arch are similarly dated. The remainder of the main body carries dating of the late 13th and 14th centuries, the southern arcade is probably the earliest with Pevsner suggesting a very late 13th century date which would place it within the short-lived Transitional Era. Of a similar date Pevsner places the vestry which stands to the northeast. Moving into the early 14th century, the chancel is a good example of the Decorated style that flourished for a half-century, strangely the chancel is blocked internally from the nave and no longer used for worship. The western tower, of ashlar rather than the ironstone used elsewhere, dates from a rebuilding of the early 1820s, it once bore a spire but the 18th century had seen that fall and it was never replaced. Further rebuilding, much more major than a mere restoration, took place in 1840 and a further restoration of 1896 added further changes to the medieval hotch-potch. The Slips is of sufficient width as to allow street parking outside the churchyard. Wooden gates grant entry to the churchyard through a local stone wall which surrounds, the churchyard has a few trees which gather in clusters around both western & eastern ends of the church and do somewhat restrict the angles available to the photographer.