England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Leighton St Mary

The Parish

The parish of Leighton lies in central Shropshire about 5 miles north of the small market town of Much Wenlock. Leighton is a very small village which sits on the B4380 road which connects Shrewsbury through towards Ironbridge along the northern banks of the River Severn. Much of the village sits along this road but the estate of Leighton Hall, between road and river, dominates the parish and would have been the primary driver of population size within the parish at the time of this transcript. Like many small parishes in Shropshire Leighton would have been a pastoral farming parish, here the rich pastures of the Severn floodplain would have provided excellent grazing for cattle, a small amount of arable, mainly cereals and root crops, would have been grown on higher, and drier, ground. The Severn is one of the major drainage basins of western England and much of Wales and whilst it passes through Leighton it heads off eastwards and then south on a long journey to the Bristol Channel. Leighton is sited at around 50 metres above the sea and some 20 metres above the rive height, land rises steadily northwards till it reaches the isolated outcrop of The Wrekin after a couple of miles and rises to 409 metres on its isolated summit. Shropshire has a mixture of small and larger parishes, Leighton was one of the former, it covered a little under 2,200 acres and would have supported a population of around 400 parishioners. In Domesday times it was a tiny place, held by one Robert the son of Corbet and mustering a single plough and some woodland.

The Church

St Mary's church sits within the parkland ground of Leighton Hall and is facing the Hall across its main driveway. The church was rebuilt in what was almost a reconstruction of the medieval predecessor. St Mary was built between 1714 & 1716 largely from the local red brick but stands upon the sandstone footings of the former building. The basic nave & chancel, augmented by a southern porch and vestry is topped by a white-painted and weatherboarded bellcote topped by a pyramidal roof, this being added during the late 18th century. A further restoration, at which time early English Gothic styles were added to some features, took place by the hand of the Victorians to arrive at today's building. St Mary's is found within the Hall grounds opposite to the hall and with a small parking area, the churchyard is sadly crowded with trees which severely restrict the angles available for photography even if they created a picturesque setting for the church.