England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
North Luffenham St John the Baptist

The Parish

The parish of North Luffenham lies in southeastern Rutland roughly 6 miles southwest of the Lincolnshire town of Stamford. North Luffenham sits about a mile northwest of the A6121 road, a linking road connecting Stamford with the A47 (Peterborough to Leicester) road. North Luffenham is a mid-sized compact village sitting on the northern banks of the River Chater, it has a roughly triangular shape with most properties sitting within the confines of that triangle of lanes. Like most parishes in this area North Luffenham is a farming parish, here the underlying stone is Jurassic limestone overlain with glacial deposits, the soil is relatively fertile and arable is the dominant form, the valley of the Chater has some pastures to vary the regime. Nearby Ketton is famous for the quality of its limestone and North Luffenham also quarried the same stone to a lesser extent. Modern developments have come to the parish, the railway line between Stamford and Oakham follows the Chater's valley passing through North Luffenham parish without granting a station. North Luffenham is drained eastwards by the Chater which meets the Welland within only a couple of miles, the Welland passes into Fenland crossing that area largely through man-influenced channels to reach The Wash and the North Sea. North Luffenham is sited on rising ground between 50 and 100 metres above the sea, the ridge which lies to its north and separates it from Rutland Water rises westwards to reach 126 metres at nearby Manton. North Luffenham parish was typically sized for its area covering 1,900 acres and supporting around 500 parishioners. In Domesday times  was a holding of King William with assets of 12 ploughs, some meadows and 2 mills making for a moderately prosperous rural manor, as it is today.

The Church

St John's church sits on the southern edge of the village accessed by footpath from close to the village's school. The building history of the church is obviously puzzling to Pevsner as he dedicates quite a piece of analysis to unraveling the sequence, suffice it to say that the church is largely one of the 12th & 13th centuries. It is only internally that the earlier elements are revealed, the 4-bay northern arcade being from the late 12th century and Norman Romanesque in style, it is a portion of the earliest church, an aisleless Norman church from which today's church emerged. Traces of the same era are also found in the tower arches. About a century after the aisleless church was completed a substantial rebuild provided much of the plan of today's church. The late 13th century into the early 14th century saw the completion of the western tower, the impressive chancel, complete with a interesting sedilia and the aisles of the nave, both northern & southern doorways completed the assembly. Pevsner documents 2 phases of Victorian restoration in 1871 this addressed the chancel whilst that of 1875 was a more general and extensive restoration. The dead-end lane leading to the school leaves Church Street southwards and has ample on-street parking in its first few yards, on reaching the school a tarred path heads further south to the churchyard which has few significant obstacles for the photographer.