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

The Parish

The parish of Ingestre lies almost centrally within Staffordshire and located roughly 4 miles east of the town of Stafford. Ingestre sits across the course of the River Trent by around a mile west of the A51 road which connects Stone with Rugeley. Ingestre is an estate village, the ancient medieval village including its church were removed to become parkland for the estate of Ingestre Hall. The hall was built by the local Chetwynd family passing to a cadet branch of the Talbots in time. Pevsner believes the southern front of the hall to be "the foremost display of Jacobean grandeur in the country", praise indeed from the normally caustic expert. Sadly a tragic fire of 1882 robbed us much glory. Most of the parish is taken up with the designed parkland, Capability Brown had his hand in the design. Today the hall has been re-purposed as a residential arts centre. Like most estate parishes inbound migration was discouraged so no definite village has emerged, similarly the parish economy would have been dominated by the needs of the estate, here pastoral farming was the dominant method. A small industry extracting salt from a brine spring also existed. As already mentioned Ingestre sat on the southern banks of the young Trent, this drains the parish on its long journey across the Midlands and then north to the Humber Estuary where it finally meets the North Sea. Ingestre is sited at 100 metres at the hall on a rising site which reaches 137 metres on the northwestern outskirts of Stafford. Covering only a little over 1,200 acres Ingestre parish was small for its county, that acreage only supported a population of close to 100 parishioners. In Domesday times Ingestre, held by Robert of Stafford, was equally small offering just a pair of ploughs, some meadows & woodland and a half-share in a mill.

The Church

The creation of the parkland estate of Ingestre Hall required the demolition of the "decayed edifice" that once served as a village church, permission was granted in 1673. None other than the workshop of Sir Christopher Wren engaged in the design of today's St Mary which sits alongside the Hall. The entrance to the church is through the base of its western 3-stage tower where the western doorway is flanked by Tuscan column and surmounted by an elaborate cartouche. Pevsner notes this the only external decoration for the largely plain ashlar from which the church is built. The remainder of the church follows the standard layout of aisled nave and chancel complete with round-windowed clerestory to enhance the internal lighting. Pevsner makes much of the entrance's circular lobby which opens into a well-proportioned and harmonic space, the magic parameters of 20x30x40 are applied to good effect herein. Despite the relative youth there has been change Pevsner bemoans the quality of some windows added to the eastern end as spoiling the purity of the design but remains neutral on the 1908 vestry. Everything you need to find the church is signed from the lame running in from Great Haywood, parking is right by the entrance and the site is open with no obstacles whatsoever for the photographer.