England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Wallsend St Peter

The Parish

The parish of Wallsend lies in the extreme southeast of Northumberland, indeed it forms part of the border with neighbouring County Durham. Wallsend is located about 3 1/2 miles east of the city of Newcastle upon Tyne and sits on the northern banks of the River Tyne close to its mouth and the North Sea. Many A-class roads pass through the parish, the principal east to west running roads being the A193 & 187 both connecting Newcastle with the port of Tynemouth. More modern communications cross the parish, the Tyne & wear Metro having an east to west line also and just east of Wallsend the Tyne Road Tunnel brings the a19 across from County Durham. Wallsend parish included not just the large village of Wallsend but also the townships of Howden Pans & Willington, more than half the population lived outwith the village. Wallsend receives its name from it marking the eastern end of Hadrian's wall and the Roman port & station of Segedunum which received supplies from the wider Roman Empire and passed them to maintain the garrisons along the wall. Today little remains above the surface of these Roman features although the cross-country Hadrian's Wall trail does end at the site of Segedunum. Wallsend largely made its living through industry despite the good quality soils maintaining an arable farming community too. Coal mining, ship building & ancillary trades such as rope making as well as manufactories for earthenware and copperas provided major sources of income. Today Wallsend is contiguous with the great Tyneside metropolis, there being no gap between Wallsend and Newcastle upon Tyne. As a coastal settlement small streams and drains lead the short distance to the Tyne Estuary and the North Sea. Wallsend is sited at between sea level and 25 metres above it, the wider area is of only moderate gradient rising to local heights of around 60 metres or so within a few miles. Wallsend parish was fairly typically sized for the area, it covered just over 2,000 acres, its population was increasing rapidly through the period of this transcript from fewer than 1,000 folk at the start of the transcript period it had grown to 3,100 by 1801, to 10,500 by 1871 and reached over 50,000 by the middle of the 20th century. In common with most of Northumberland there is no mention of Wallsend in Domesday Book which did not cover this area of England.

The Church

St Peter's church sits on the southern side of the A193 as it heads eastwards from Wallsend towards Tynemouth. For much of the period of this transcript the marriages would have taken place at its mediaeval predecessor Holy Cross as St Peter was not completed until 1809, Holy Cross is a ruin just over a quarter of a mile northwest of St Peter, only a pair of battered arches and a few courses remain to be viewed from the western end of Valley Gardens. St Peter's origins are colourful, its funding being raised by a tontine whereby the last surviving subscriber gained the prize. Despite the Georgian origin of the church a major restoration was still undertaken less than a century later in 1892 when the style was changed to Gothic Perpendicular and the church greatly enlarged. In 1999 further work described by Pevsner as "reordered" also took place to result in today's building. The A193 is broad enough for parking without issue, the church sits behind a mid-height local sandstone wall and within a large churchyard with the best views available from the North Terrace side.