England
& Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index |
The ParishThe parish of Eccleshall lies in the extreme west of Staffordshire forming a short stretch of the border with neighbouring Shropshire. Eccleshall is located roughly 7 miles northwest of the county town of Stafford and sits at the junction of the A5013 road, running out from Stafford, with the A519 road, from Newport in Shropshire to Newcastle under Lyme. Eccleshall is a small country market town with a roughly oval pattern of properties lying on or south of the B5026 (Stone to Market Drayton) road which forms the main High Street of the town. Eccleshall has a long history, granted a market as early as 1160 whilst its castle was embattlemented in 1200. The castle, today, following being slighted during the English Civil War, is a mere corner tower and sits just west of the 14th century bridge over the River Sow. Like most country market towns Eccleshall earned its living by providing a market for the exchange of local goods as well as a ready made market for specialist trades and services. The wider parish, like much of western Staffordshire, is largely pastoral and it was the products of the mainly cattle herds that formed the bedrock of the town economy. The wider parish of Eccleshall covers much of western Staffordshire and early gazetteers list no fewer than 20 townships within the wider parish, only around 30% of the parish population inhabited the town itself. Whilst modern developments have come to the wider parish, Eccleshall, itself, was avoided by the Stafford to Crewe railway line, which did, at least, provide a station some 2 miles east at Norton Bridge. The wider parish of Eccleshall covers much of western Staffordshire and early gazetteers list no fewer than 20 townships within the wider parish, only around 30% of the parish population inhabited the town itself. Eccleshall is drained southeastwards by the River Sow, it passes through Stafford before joining the Trent for its long journey to the East Coast, the North Sea and the Humber Estuary. Eccleshall is sited at around 90 metres above the sea in gently undulating countryside which rises northwestwards to a local high point of 174 metres to the southwest of Croxton. Eccleshall parish is, quite simply, enormous, estimates place it in the region of 20,000 acres larger than many northern mountainous parishes, within that extensive acreage would have been supported a population of just over 4,700 parishioners. In Domesday times Eccleshall, itself was held by the Bishop of Chester but several of the townships have their own entries, most held also by the Bishop; collectively their assets amounted to an impressive 29 ploughs, extensive meadows and in Eccleshall 2 mills thus making for a very wealthy holding indeed. |
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Register No | Covering Dates | Deposited With | Register Style | Quality Standard | Comments |
1 | 26th March 1754 - 31st December 1783 | Staffordshire History Centre - Reference - D3767/1/6 | Standard preprinted and self-numbered Marriage register with 4 entries per page | Grade 3 Register - there are sufficient quality issues with this register to indicate that some misreads will occur albeit few in number | Fading and poor handwriting often combine to result in a possibility of a few misreads |
2 | 11th January 1784 - 25th December 1807 | Staffordshire History Centre - Reference - D3767/1/7 | Standard preprinted and self-numbered Marriage register with 3 entries per page | Grade 2 Register - not a perfect read but with a low likelihood of misreads | None |
3 | 1st January 1808 - 25th December 1812 | Staffordshire History Centre - Reference - D3767/1/8 | Standard preprinted and self-numbered Marriage register with 4 entries per page | Grade 3 Register - there are sufficient quality issues with this register to indicate that some misreads will occur albeit few in number | Fading of this register may lead to one or two misreads |
4 | 2nd Janury 1813 - 6th June 1837 | Staffordshire History Centre - Reference - D3767/1/10 | Standard Rose style preprinted and prenumbered Marriage register | Grade 2 Register - not a perfect read but with a low likelihood of misreads | None |
Ashley
St John
Standon All Saints |
Swynnerton
St Mary
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Cheswardine
St Swithin, Shropshire
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Swynnerton
St Mary
Chebsey All Saints |
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Adbaston
St Michael
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