England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Arnold St Mary

The Parish

The parish of Arnold lies in southwestern Nottinghamshire roughly 4 miles northeast of the city of Nottingham. Arnold sits about a quarter mile east of A60 road which links Nottingham with Mansfield. Arnold is a much changed place since the time of this transcript, then Arnold was a discrete village separated from its larger neighbour partly by open fields and partly by parts of the ancient Sherwood Forest within which it sat. Then Arnold was a largely linear village with its parish church at its northern head and most properties lying between two lanes, a subsidiary settlement within the parish was Daybrook which lay to the southwest on the A60. As Nottingham has spread it has engulfed Arnold turning it from separate village into its northeastern suburb being part of a continuous urban environment stretching over 10 miles to the southwest to Derbyshire's Long Eaton and around 6 miles from west to east. Arnold would have had both a rural farming economy, arable dominated by 2:1 over pastoral methods, but the parishioners would also have been employed in the local East Midland business of Frame Work Knitting with Arnold well known for the quality of its cotton stockings, hose & gloves. Sadly little remains of the southern portion of Sherwood Forest in this vicinity, it has largely been built over but small patches of heath and woodland do remain in the parish. Modern developments have come and gone within the parish, a railway line encircling Nottingham's eastern fringes passed just south of Daybrook but has been closed. Arnold is drained eastwards by small brooks merging to become the Cocker Beck before turning south at Lowdham to meet the Trent, the Trent trends northeast and then north to meet with the Yorkshire Dales rivers and pass into the North Sea through the Humber Estuary. Arnold is sited at around 70 metres above the sea land rises to the north reaching 141 metres at the trig point on Dorket Head, the highest ground for some distance. Arnold parish was extensive, covering a little over 4,300 acres and would have supported a growing population of around 4,500 parishioners by the end of the transcript period, the volume of marriages recorded is, however, indicative of an average population over the transcript period of around 3,000. In Domesday times Arnold was held directly by King William and was a much smaller place of just 24 households, its assets of 8 ploughs and 9 leagues of woodland indicate its small value to the monarch.

The Church

St Mary's church sat at the northern end of the strip of properties that formed the original village of Arnold, today modern developments enclose both the church,& its churchyard and the local recreation ground, the church sits on Church Lane at the northern tip of Allen's Walk. The church is one which has been much changed by Victorian restoration but with substantial remains from its earliest origins to determine the rough sequence of construction. Pevsner identifies the western doorway as the earliest remaining fabric, it being 13th century and Early English Gothic. The chancel remains from the 14th century with a mixture of Decorated and early Perpendicular features indicating a prolonged build, the chancel also holds the church's most prominent survivor its eastern sepulchre, sedilia and piscina. The western tower is also of the Perpendicular era but with a 17th century top stage and a bell stage suspected of being from the same later period, the tower base is original but the remainder is suspect as the tower is recorded as being partly rebuilt in the major restoration of 1866 - 1868. That restoration was thorough and responsible for much else we see in the church today. Adjacent to the church sits the recreation grounds which have a small car park suitable for a church visit, there are gated entries from this northern approach as well as a stepped entrance from the southwest from Church Lane. Once within the church is adequately exposed for the photographer from all of the favoured aspects.