England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Longdon St James

The Parish

The parish of Longdon lies in south central Staffordshire about 4 miles northwest of the city of Lichfield. Longdon is a substantial village which formerly sat on and is now bypassed by the A51 road which connects Lichfield to Rugeley. Virtually all of today's village sits to the east of the busy road wither side of the small beck which runs through to the nearby Trent. The village sits on the edge of both the Trent flood plain and also the edge of Cannock Chase the former Royal hunting forest that dominates this portion of the county. Modern developments have come to this area, the Lichfield to Stafford rail line passes just northeast of Longdon which doesn't have a station. The parish would have been largely dominated by farming, here a mixed regime combining both arable and pastoral farming would have predominated. The small beck drains northeastwards the 3 miles or so to the Trent which then follows a lengthy journey across the country to meet the North Sea through the Humber Estuary. Longdon is sited at around 90 metres above the sea, land rises steadily southwestwards onto the Chase where heights reach close to 200 metres within a couple of miles. This area has many large parishes and Longdon was large too, albeit smaller than some of its neighbours, it covered almost 4,500 acres and would have supported a population of close to 1,200 parishioners. Longdon is not specifically mentioned in Domesday Book despite having a church dating from soon after the Conquest. 

The Church

St James' church sits right alongside the busy A51, a short access road running parallel separates it from the busy traffic. As stated above the church has its origins in the immediate post-Conquest period and Norman Romanesque styles are represented by the southern doorway as well as isolated fragments, a southern buttress and the chancel arch. A pair of lancet windows are also present from the Early English Gothic period but it is the Decorated & Perpendicular which dominate, well represented in the western tower which has a Decorated style basal portion topped by one in Perpendicular. The southern chapel of c1500 completed the initial build but the apparent Early English Gothic southern transept is a created of the 1870's restoration. The A51 is a fast and busy road, access is easier to achieve if arriving from the northwest as this facilitates entry to the access road where a lych gate awaits granting entry to the churchyard. A short walk through trees brings you to the church which sadly has those trees clustering close to the southern aspect and which, therefore, severely limit the angles available for photography especially on sunny visits.