England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Cotham St Michael

The Parish

The parish of Cotham lies in southeastern Nottinghamshire forming a stretch of the county's border with neighbouring Lincolnshire. Cotham is located roughly 4 miles south of Newark on Trent and sits a little over 2 miles west of the A1 (Great North Road) which links London with the north of England, Cotham is a tiny village of a few farmsteads and cottages lining a lane which follows the edge of the flood-plain of the River Devon. This position gave the parish a variety of land-forms with pastures alongside the river and arable in the drier areas. Modern developments did come to Cotham but the railway line south from Newark to Bottesford has closed and been re-purposed as a cycleway. The Devon drains the parish northwards meeting the mighty Trent at Newark and continuing north to Humberside where it meets the Dales Rivers to flow into the North Sea as the Humber Estuary, Cotham is sited at just 20 metres above the sea in this flat plain a height rather generally met until rising to 40 metres east of the A1. Covering just 1,200 acres Cotham parish was towards the small end of the scale for its county, that acreage barely supporting 100 parishioners. In Domesday times Cotham was an equally small place, shared between Walter d'Aincourt and Bishop Odo its assets amounted to a mere 5 ploughs and a small meadow.

The Church

St Michael's church sits west of the main lane through the village accessed by a field path, the church has been deconsecrated and today is managed by a conservation trust. Given the church we see today it is difficult to picture its origins as a typical 14th century church of nave, chancel and western tower such is the changes wrought over the centuries. At some point the aisles of the church were removed and in the 18th century the western tower and most of the western end was also demolished. It took until 1890 for the roof-line to assume today's form complete with its iconic western turret. A southern porch had been added in 1870. The window tracery is a real jumble of styles from the various periods that the church has endured. Whilst the lane passing is narrow it carries little traffic, the field path is marked with a small white sign and crosses the intervening pasture to a tiny churchyard which whilst there are trees close they are clustered to the north and west leaving the favoured aspects to the photographer,