England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Ollerton St Giles

The Parish

The chapelry of Ollerton, its mother parish being Edwinstowe, lies in northern central Nottinghamshire roughly 9 miles northeast of the industrial town of Mansfield. Ollerton sits on the eastern banks of the River Maun where the A616 (Newark to Sheffield) road meets the A614 (Nottingham to the A1, Great North Road) road. Today's Ollerton is a much expanded place albeit at one time the original settlement was a small market town, that honour having lapsed. The original settlement consisted of  a medium sized nucleated village grouped along the Maun's eastern banks, it was the arrival of deep seated mining of coal measures that added the larger settlement of New Ollerton model village, expanding the built area north and northeastwards, following the opening of the Butterley Colliery in 1923. Ollerton sits on the southeastern corner of Nottinghamshire's famous Sherwood Forest, a former Royal hunting forest nowadays noted more for access and enjoyment of the countryside than the exploits of its notorious "Merry Men", Modern developments, in the form of several mineral railway lines criss-cross the area, most as closed nowadays as the mines they once served. Ollerton is drained by the Maun which meanders steadily northwards then east to meet the lower Trent east of Misterton from where the latter heads to the North Sea arriving through the Humber Estuary. Ollerton is sited at around 40 metres above the sea, away from the Maun land rises fairly gently reaching around 70 metres at local high spots. The chapelry covered around 2,400 acres of Edwinstowe parish within which it would have supported a population of close to 750 parishioners, many more today is one includes New Ollerton & the contiguous area of Boughton. In Domesday times Ollerton was shared between Roger de Bully and Gilbert of Ghent, with the latter having the larger share; its collective assets amounted to 9 ploughs, extensive woodland and the settlement held 2 mills.

The Church

St Giles' church sits at the heart of "old" Ollerton standing proud above the village's Market Place. As can be clearly seen the church is not a medieval example but rather one that was built contemporary with the transcript period. The rather plain and simple church of brick fronted by ashlar blocks was completed in 1761. The church follows the standard layout of nave and chancel with a western tower all seemingly unadorned with the flourishes typical of medieval designs, a plain church for a plain northern village. The church was clearly of little architectural interest for Pevsner as his account is short and merely describes the church without comment or praise. Parking nearby is difficult, if fortunate the short dead-end street of Church Street can provide whereas it may be best to search in local side streets. From Church Street a short flight of steps rises steeply to the elevated churchyard which stands well above street level. The churchyard is relatively un-obstructed but is compact and close set trees dominate the eastern end limiting the angles available for the photographer.