England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Holme Pierrepont St Edmund

The Parish

The parish of Holme Pierrepont lies in south central Nottinghamshire and sits on the southern banks of the River Trent about 3 miles east of the city of Nottingham. Holme Pierrepont sits in lanes roughly a mile north of the A52 road which connects Nottingham with the Lincolnshire market town of Grantham. The former Grantham Canal also runs through the southern portion of the parish on its way to the same place. Today Holme Pierrepont is famous as the home of the National Water Sports Centre occupying former gravel extraction pits along the Trent's floodplain. At the time of this transcript Holme Pierrepont was a quiet rural backwater dominated by the estate of its Hall, the home of the the Earls of Kingston, and the agricultural needs of that estate. Hole Pierrepont is drained by the nearby Trent which heads northeastwards to reach the North Sea through the Humber Estuary. Holme Pierrepont is sited at just 20 metres above the sea and sits on the fertile floodplain, land rises to the south to local heights of around 70 metres in gently undulating countryside. Holme Pierrepont parish was fairly typically sized for south Nottinghamshire, it covered around 3,000 acres and would have supported a population of about 200 parishioners. In Domesday time Holme Pierrepont was also small, held by one Roger of Bully it could offer just 7 ploughs with a small meadow but did possess a mill.

The Church

St Edmund's church sits within the grounds of the hall and is accessed by the main driveway from the end of Adbolton Lane, The hall is now a wedding, event and seminar venue with the gardens open to the public on Wednesday afternoons. The church is unusual in being built in the 17th century, a rare century for church building. Built to carry the impression of representing the main architectural periods of the Gothic era, the main body is styled Perpendicular, the arcades mimic the Early English style whilst the 1878 addition of the chancel is Decorated. The presence of Tuscan columns in the southern porch is a quirky feature . In short a church constructed to offset the neighbouring hall which it does to good effect, its towering spire a landmark in the rather flat floodplain. The track turns left from Adbolton Lane into the grounds, the church coming just before the hall has some parking on the grass at its entrance, the churchyard has some mature trees which does somewhat limit photographic angles.