England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Bilborough St Martin

The Parish

The parish of Bilborough lies in southwestern Nottinghamshire roughly 4 miles west of the city of Nottingham. Bilborough sits on the B6004 road which skirts the western suburbs of Nottingham from Strelley to Arnold. At the time of this transcript Bilborough was a small crossroads settlement grouped along the B6004, now Strelley Road, with an extension southwards to the area around the church, a further settlement within the parish could be found a little to the northeast as Broxtowe. With the passing of time, however, and the expansion of Nottingham's urban area Bilborough has become engulfed in the greater Nottingham urban area and today is a mere suburb. At the time of this transcript Bilborough would have been primarily a farming village, a mixed regime of both arable & pastoral methods in use; in addition there was limited coal mining from seams in the nearby Nottinghamshire coalfield. Modern developments have skirted Bilborough with a branch railway line connecting Nottingham to the main Erewash valley line passing to its south. Today's Bilborough is a sea of, largely, domestic developments from the early and mid-20th century development of housing estates, almost on the western fringes of an urban area that stretches eastwards for almost 7 miles to Carlton in the far east. In this urbanised environment most water drains sub-surface westwards into the nearby River Erewash from there it turn south to meet the Trent and begins the long journey to the North Sea arriving through the Humber Estuary. Bilborough is sited at around 80 metres above the sea in gently sloping terrain where local high points rise to 140 metres to the northwest. Bilborough parish was one of the smaller in its county, covering a little over 1,000 acres it would have supported a population of close to 250 parishioners. In Domesday times Bilborough was a rather obscure small settlement, the portion held by William Peverel offered a pair of ploughs and a small meadow whilst the remainder, held directly by King William, is described as undeveloped "waste".

The Church

St Martin's church sits around 200 yards south of the Strelley Road surrounded by 20th century housing stock and accessed along St Martin's Road. St Martin is a church of the mid to late 14th century, obviously with later additions common to almost all churches. Both nave and chancel are aisle-less with an early 14th century dating given by Pevsner. The period was one in which the style was changing from the Decorated into Perpendicular and both styles are shown within the basal fabric. The rather blocky western tower is later Perpendicular, given a c1450 dating by Pevsner although joined to the main body by a narrow pointed and 14th century tower arch, perhaps a 15th century replacement. The church has been heavily restored and changed during both 19th century and modern times. There are two distinct 19th century campaigns of 1833 and the late 1880s in which the basic fabric was refreshed and many windows replaced; the 20th century work is an extension of 1972 that Pevsner finds "large and dominating" and has curved and windowless brick walls. As one arrives St Mattin's Road splits into a shallow "V" with the right-hand branch being only partially surfaced but leading to a parking area. St Martin is a difficult church to adequately capture with the southern aspects heavily tree-covered whilst those views from the north are over-shadowed by the modern extension which spreads northwards beyond the confines of the original churchyard.