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

The Parish

The parish of Bleasby lies in the southeastern portion of central Nottinghamshire roughly 4 miles south of the town of Southwell. Bleasby sits about a mile southeast of the A612 road which links Southwell with Nottingham. Bleasby is a linear village with its Main Street running from the A612 straight southeast to the former ferry at Hazelford across the Trent, most properties lie along this lane to the south of the Newark/Nottingham railway line. The village extends for almost a mile, it is supplemented by two small hamlets, to the south is Gibsmere, just a small group of cottages and farms, to the northwest of the railway line is Goverton, an extension of the main village. Bleasby's position gave it a varied farming regime with Trent-side pastures and drier arable lands on higher ground, early gazetteers estimated almost equal proportions. Modern developments have arrived with the above mentioned railway line which cuts through to the north whilst granting Bleasby a station which has led to some modern commuter development around the Goverton end. The flood-plain of the Trent has been exploited for deposited gravel in recent times, many of those pits are now flooded providing both leisure and wildlife benefits. The Trent drains the parish northeastwards passing Newark before trending more to the north headed for the Humber Estuary and thence to the North Sea. Bleasby rises from around 15 metres at the Trent to around 30 metres at Goverton, land continues rising northwestwards reaching around 110 metres in a few spots southwest of Southwell. Bleasby parish was typically sized for its area, covering just under 1,500 acres it would have supported a population of around 350 parishioners. Of the 3 settlement only Gibsmere is recorded in Domesday Book, it had no assets or population but potential for 3 ploughs.

The Church

St Mary's church sits towards the southeastern end of the village on the eastern side of Main Street. Sadly there is very little of the medieval left in today's church as it was subjected to 3 phases of Victorian restoration the last of which amounted to an almost complete rebuild of the main body. The chief exception is the western tower which has its origins in the 13th century Early English Gothic period, the tower has had an eventful life according to Pevsner, its buttressing came later and Pevsner surmises that this was to take the weight of a spire, as can be readily seen that spire has been removed. The southern wall of the nave is, at least, relatively early with a 16th century date usually acknowledged, a former nave wall line remains as a scar on the aisle's western wall perhaps indicates an earlier origin. The Georgian period saw the addition of the southern porch but its was the Victorian period that saw the major changes, the first two phases of 1845 & 1852 receive no detailed comment from Pevsner so were presumably fairly light, the final phase of 1869 was extensive and created both the northern aisle and arcade as well extensively renewing elsewhere. Main Street has sufficient width to allow on-street parking outside the churchyard gates, the church, however, is markedly restricted by mature trees, in particular a large conifer in the southwestern area, only from the far southeast are the views immune to this interference, a challenge for the photographer.