England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Wellington All Saints

The Parish

The parish of Wellington lies in eastern Shropshire roughly 11 miles east of the county town of Shrewsbury. Wellington sits around 1 miles north of the modern M54 motorway, replacing part of the ancient A5 road and the Roman Watling Street, connecting Shrewsbury with the main motorway network and the great towns of the Midlands. Wellington is a much changed place, its origins lay as a market town for its region in eastern Shropshire, its market having been granted in 1244. Throughout the early period it functioned purely as a centre for trade & exchange together with the location for specialist skilled trades requiring a larger market to be profitable. The first great change to Wellington came through the industrial revolution, just under 4 miles to the south lies Ironbridge, the location of the "Birth of the Industrial Revolution" in some people's eyes. Iron & steel working spread to the surrounding area including Wellington which became a centre for nail making, other industrial activities including glass-making, milling and kilning. Wellington's population swelled during the 18th century, trebling to over 4,000 and making the town 3rd in size in its county after Shrewsbury & Bridgnorth. Growth was speeded through the arrival of the railway line from Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury which grew the town to over 10,000. The motorway arrived in modern times increasing the area's attractiveness for both industry and commuting to the larger towns of the Midlands. The final changes came in 1988 through Wellington's incorporation into the New Town of Telford, named in honour for the great engineer, a process of infill has made Wellington, once a separate and self-contained town into merely a northwestern extension of that New Town, part of an urban area shaped roughly as a "J" and reaching 3 miles from west to east at its northern edges all the way down to include Ironbridge and the Severnside industrial heritage. Wellington is drained, perhaps surprisingly, initially northwestwards by small brooks headed for the River Tern, the Tern, in a classic case of river-capture is halted in its westwards course on meeting the Severn where water turns back east to start a long journey through the English Midlands to eventually reach the sea at the Bristol Channel. Wellington is sited, at its centre, at around 100 metres above the sea with its southern edges some 30 metres higher, its landscape is, however, dominated by the isolated hill of The Wrekin standing at 407 metres and dominating the local countryside, its isolation relates the theory that from its summit one can view a horizon of some 350 to 400 miles in circumference. Wellington parish was very extensive covering almost 8,800 acres and including the townships of Aston, Hadley, Horton, Ketley, Lawley, and Walcot. With the growth from the new industries its population grew from less than 2,000 to multiple thousands today with a similar growth in marriage volume too. In Domesday times Wellington was a much smaller place, a holding of Earl Roger of Shrewsbury its assets of 17 ploughs made it a large rural community but it also held a mill and 2 fisheries as more profitable enterprises.

The Church

All Saints' church sits within the ancient core of the original market town immediately north of the town's railway station and within a broad park-like area immediately east, and parallel with the railway lines, of Church Street. As can readily be seen the church is not the medieval original as today's church was constructed within the period of these marriages being completed in 1790 so earlier participants would not have been married in this structure. Pevsner calls the church "a fine Neoclassical building" and rightly so. The church's colour comes not from its stone rather the centuries of railway smoke from sitting beside said lines. The western front of 3 bays carries slender Tuscan styled pilasters whilst the square tower carries Ionic versions in contrast. At the eastern end Tuscan styling again re-emerges. Whilst there is on-street parking in a semi-circular bay at the northern end of the churchyard one would be fortunate indeed to secure a place, better to find a car park and approach on foot. The church sits within an area once covered by properties but now cleared to create an urban park, a great asset in the centre of the town, a broad area allowing unfettered views for the photographer from most aspects.