England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Stapleford St Helen

The Parish

The parish of Stapleford lies in the extreme southwest of Nottinghamshire forming a stretch of the county's border, here formed by the River Erewash, with neighbouring Derbyshire. Stapleford is located roughly 6 miles southwest of the county town of Nottingham and stands on the former route of the A52 road linking Nottingham with Derby, that road now bypasses to the south with the old road downgraded to the B5050. Stapleford is a much changed place, early maps show a rather linear settlement stretching along the old A52 for almost a mile, from the central junction forks to both north and south also held properties, that to the north passing the parish church. Today Stapleford still has that "X" shape as its fundamental core but within the forks there has been total infill, the Erewash has constrained westwards development but that is take care of by the Derbyshire town of Sandiacre. Increasingly Nottingham has also expanded and today Stapleford is contiguous with the urban area stretching as a continuous sea of properties all the way northeast to Arnold. At the time of this transcript there would have been two main income streams. farming, largely pastoral, and framework knitting that ubiquitous industry of the East Midlands. Modern developments abound around the town, first to arrive was the railway passing through between Loughborough and Chesterfield without currently granting Stapleford a station, the A52 bypass is now a modern fast dual-carriageway highway taking heavy traffic out of the centre and the modern M1 motorway clips the northwest of the parish en route between London and Leeds. All of these excellent communications has attracted light industry to supplement its role as a commuter dormitory. Stapleford is drained southwards by the Erewash the short distance to the Trent, here water turns northeast, passing through Nottingham and Newark before heading north to the Humber Estuary and the North Sea. Stapleford is sited at around 40 metres above the sea, the Nottinghamshire side of the Erewash only rises gently but that in Derbyshire climbs to 133 metres southwest of Stanton by Dale. Covering just 1,200 acres Stapleford parish was towards the smaller end of Nottinghamshire's scale yet supported a population growing to close to 1,850 parishioners, the marriage volume in the transcript would indicate an average of closer to 1,100. Domesday Stapleford was a much smaller place of just 9 households all of whom had a plough other than a small meadow these were the only assets available for landholder William Peverel.

The Church

St Helen's church sits on the western side of Church Street at its junction with Church Lane and sitting opposite to the Old Cross Inn, a reference to the largest and most complete Anglo-Saxon cross in its county which sits within the town. St Helen is a church of the 13th and 14th centuries with not only the basal stages of its spectacular steeple-topped tower being 13th century but also the nave, the chancel and the aisles all originally built during the Early English Gothic period. The end of that century is well-marked in the chancel by the stunning east window which Pevsner dates to the final decade of the 13th century, its is 5-lights of intricate intersecting tracery. The 14th century and the Decorated style saw the completion of the western tower including the bell-stage. The following era of the Perpendicular saw the insertion of a clerestory in either the 15th or early 16th century to improve internal lighting. The church received two phases of restoration, the first of 1877 was classic Victorian work which rebuilt the outer wall of the northern aisle, replaced the porch and rebuilt the roofs including lowering the roof-line of the chancel, the second of 1823 added the southeastern memorial chapel. The church stands within an area with all roads permit parking so must be approached from on-street parking in Frederick Road to the west where stands the church hall. Metal gates stand at the junction of Church Street & Lane granting entry to a churchyard which restricts direct views from the south due to close adjacent buildings but is otherwise open and unobstructed for the photographer.