England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Cannock St Luke

The Parish

The parish of Cannock lies in southern central Staffordshire roughly 15 miles north of the industrial city of Birmingham. Cannock is located at a crossroads of the A460 (Wolverhampton to Rugeley) road with the A5190 (which runs eastwards to Lichfield) and around 1 miles north of the A5, which follows the ancient Roman Road of Watling Street. Cannock is a much-grown town due to its proximity to Staffordshire's coalfields, a quiet market town has grown into a substantial industrial town with approaching 50,000 inhabitants with the on-rush of business arising from the industrial revolution. At The time of this transcript Cannock would have been a regional market and hub for specialist services set amongst the unique habitat of Cannock Chase. This area of infertile glacial deposits first found use as a King's hunting forest, a Norman "chase". The poor soils made agriculture difficult and early gazetteers place only around 25% of the parish acreage to such use. Extractive industries besides coal were concentrated on the local stone which was much desired for building work. Modern developments have added  to the town's growth with, in turn, the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal being quickly followed by the Birmingham to Stafford railway and in more modern times the twin modern motorways of the M6 & M6 toll both passing within close proximity and giving excellent communications to the area. Cannock Chase is nowadays one of the premier leisure areas of the English Midlands, its heathland a treasure for its scenery and wildlife, a real oasis in the industrial area that stands around it. A small stream drains Cannock westwards joining, in turn, the Penk, the Sow and finally the Trent before embarking on the long journey to the east coast arriving at the North Sea through the Humber Estuary. Cannock is sited at around 150 metres above the sea with land continuing to rise eastwards to reach a local high point of over 200 metres amongst the former coal-mines north of Norton Canes. Cannock parish was exceptionally extensive, containing, as it does, the expanse of the "Chase" it covered some 20,000 acres of which the Chase forms roughly half; the parish encompassed the satellite settlements of Hednesford, Huntington & Great Wyrley and its total population in 1831 was of the order of almost 2,900 parishioners, having grown substantially during the period of this transcript. In Domesday times, as one would expect, Cannock was a direct holding of King William, the Chase being a private hunting domain and described as largely waste the manor's assets were a meagre 3 ploughs but with potential for a further 16.

The Church

St Luke's church sits almost centrally within Cannock, its grounds squeezed in next to the town's dual-carriageway central ring-road. The church is one of two distinct halves, the earliest parts remain the western end of the church, Pevsner finds traces of the Transitional period late 12th or early 13th century masonry in the northern aisle whilst the imposing western tower is clearly of the late Perpendicular period of the 14th century. Also from the 14th century one finds the arcades whilst the windows of the southern aisle also show the style of the Perpendicular. Much of the church, however, would be unrecognisable to the participants of this transcript as the main body of the church, the two eastern bays of the nave together with the chancel and vestry were completely rebuilt between 1878 & 1882 whilst the most recent part is the southern chapel which is as recent as 1949. The whole represents a typical large town church for a largely industrial settlement. The churchyard, nowadays devoid of gravestones, stands as a large brick-walled green space within the town centre, busy traffic-filled roads line its eastern side. Church Street, which forms the western edge, has limited short-stay parking allowing a brief visit, a more extended stay requires a town car park. The churchyard is open and uncluttered with no obstacles for the photographer.