England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Allendale St Cuthbert

The Parish

The parish of Allendale lies in southwestern Northumberland forming not only part of the county's border with neighbouring Cumberland but also with County Durham too. Allendale is located roughly 10 miles southwest of the market town of Hexham, it would, however, take a determined crow to fly between the two given the high moors between them. Allendale Town, the main settlement in the parish, lies on the B6295 road which runs from close to Haydon bridge over the moors to Weardale in County Durham. Allendale Town is a market town for its district with most properties lying to the east of the River Allen. The valley of the Allen is also home to most other settlements of any size in the parish notably Catton a little over a mile further north. Allendale owes it existence to lead mining, extraction of up to 3,500 tons annually is reported by early gazetteers and with it accompanying silver was also acquired. The extraction required incredible structures to process, the same gazetteers report chimneys above smelting mills rising 700 feet up hillsides and running for over 2 miles in length, a remarkable draw to produce the smelting temperatures required. Today the lead business has ceased creating a more healthy environment for the area and traditional hill farming, fishing, hiking and general tourism now power the local economy. A more controversial business is that of grouse shooting, lucrative to the few landowners of the district but anathema to wildlife conservators for its activities to prevent losses of its quarry to predators. Allendale is drained northwards by the Allen which meets the South Tyne to the west of Haydon Bridge, here water turns east, meets the North Tyne and flows to the North Sea through the port town of Newcastle Upon Tyne. Allendale is sited at around 240 metres above the sea, making it one of the highest market towns in the land, outside the Allen's valley, however, lie extensive upland moors rising to 574 metres on Hartley Moor to the southwest. As a northern upland parish one would expect the wider parish to be extensive and it is so, covering over 37,000 acres of mainly upland moorland it is perhaps one of the most extensive in the land, that acreage would have supported a population of above 5,700 parishioners`. North of the River Tees Domesday Book had no coverage, consequently Allendale is not mentioned in that book.

The Church

St Cuthbert's church sits northeast of the main square and former market place of the town. Sadly the medieval version of this church is long gone, today's church being an amalgam of replacements dated 1807 and 1874 thus substantially not the venue for the majority of these marriages. Of the 1807 version only the lower portion of the tower remains. Its face does, however, retain the sundial of 1842 on its southern face, that sundial carries the latitude of 54 degrees 50 minutes marking Allendale as supposedly the geographical centre of Great Britain. Much else is from the rebuild of 1874, a church of little architectural interest that Pevsner's account is a mere 6 lines of text. Parking in the square is not a problem there being many marked bays accordingly, the church sits to the east of the King's Head Inn where its lychgate can be readily seen. A few trees inhibit the southern aspects but all other angles are available to the photographer.