England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Stoke Albany St Botolph

The Parish

The parish of Stoke Albany lies roughly midway along the northern edges of Northamptonshire not too far from its border with neighbouring Leicestershire. Stoke Albany is located roughly 5 miles east of the Leicestershire market town of Market Harborough and stands on the former course of the A427 road linking Market Harborough with Corby, that road now bypassing the village to its south. Stoke Albany acts a twin settlement with its close neighbour Wilbarston siting wither side of a small stream Stoke Albany forms a rough reversed "L" shape with properties lining the former A427 and northwards to the manor and church. The main economy of the village would have been farming with early gazetteers estimating pastoral dominance over arable by 2:1. Stoke Albany is drained northwards by small feeder streams headed for the nearby River Welland which here forms the county boundary, the Welland has a lengthy journey largely eastwards to reach the North Sea arriving through The Wash. Stoke Albany is sited on rising ground with the northern edges at 80 metres and the village centre some 20 metres higher, the landscape is rolling rather than hilly with 150 metres touched in places within a few miles. Stoke Albany parish was typically sized for its area, covering close to 1,700 acres it would have supported a population of around 350 parishioners. In Domesday times Stoke Albany was shared by Robert de Tosny with King William and was an equally small farming community offering 7 ploughs, some woodland and a mill.

The Church

St Botolph's church stands on the northern edges of the village accessed by a short dead-end lane from that leading towards Ashley. Unlike many churches St Botolph is structurally almost completely of a single build with a date of c1300, this places the church within the short-lived Transitional era sitting between Early English Gothic and Decorated styles. Both the main body of nave and chancel and the western tower are all assigned the c1300 date by Pevsner, they show both lancets of the Early English Gothic style and also tracery from the Decorated period admixed in a melange as befits the Transitional era. From the later Perpendicular period comes the only major amendment from medieval times, the southern aisle of the 15th century. More modern is the southern porch but its 18th century looks are undermined by a tablet stating 1683. A typical Victorian restoration from 1857 completes the picture of a largely intact example of the era. The lane diverges from Ashley Road at the war memorial arriving at an expanded area allowing a car or two to safely park outside the gates. Trees enclose the western and northern edges of the churchyard but the favoured southern aspects are not impeded for the photographer.