England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Eglingham St Maurice

The Parish

The parish of Eglingham lies in central northern Northumberland about 7 miles northwest of the market town of Alnwick. Eglingham is a small village most of which lies along the B6346 road which heads northwestwards from Alnwick towards Wooler. Whilst Eglingham confers the parish name the village is simply a single component of what is a very broad parish containing a number of townships deferring to Eglingham, it is estimated in earl gazetteers that barely 1/6th of the parish population lived in the village, itself. This far north arable crop growing was difficult and much of the parish land was set to pasture, the valley of the River Breamish, to the west of Eglingham village, being rich in water-meadow based pasture. Towards the east of the parish underlying coal and limestone were exploited giving employment to many. Eglingham village sits on a minor watershed, the western part of the parish drains northwards the Breamish joining the Till and eventually the Tweed to emerge at Berwich Upon Tweed whilst to the east the Eglingham Burn head southeastwards to join the Aln and reach the North Sea through the port of Alnmouth. Eglingham village is sited at around 110 metres above the sea but much of the parish is higher reaching 233 metres on Titlington Pike to the south and 267 metres on Cateran Hill to the north. Upland parish in Northumberland are broad in extent and Eglingham parish was no exception, covering over 21,200 acres it would have supported a dispersed population of just over 1,800 parishioners. Eglingham, in common with most of eastern England north of the River Tees is not mentioned in Domesday Book which did not cover this border region.

The Church

St Maurice's church sits at the heart of Eglingham village, south of the B6346 and east of the junction with the lane leading to Glanton. St Maurice has had a complicated history, the major event being the partial destruction in 1596 by the marauding Scots who sacked the church. Medieval remnant do survive but their dating detail is masked by later work, Pevsner gives tentative dates of the 12th century to the northern wall of the chancel and 13th century to the western tower but each heavily caveated. The damage caused in the 16th century lead to major rebuilding in the early part of the 17th and further work in Victorian restorations followed the Georgian addition of a vestry in 1826, work of the late 1830s added a southern transept whilst the northern porch came in 1865. The parapet & spire where added to the tower in 1870 whilst as recently as the early 20th century work was still ongoing replacing the eastern window - a much altered church indeed. A shady dead-end lane leads to the sit from the B6346 and has a few spaces for parking, the churchyard is open and uncluttered, albeit the church sits tight towards the southwestern edge restricted somewhat the angles available.