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

The Parish

The parish of Mucklestone, prior to reorganisation in modern times, was something of a geographical anomaly, ostensibly one of the westernmost parishes in Staffordshire it had over 50% of its acreage within Shropshire. Suffice it to say it now forms part of the border between those two counties and is also not too far from Cheshire. Mucklestone village sits roughly 4 miles northeast of the Shropshire market town of Market Drayton but it is by no means the largest settlement in the parish, that being the modern settlement of Loggerheads as well as the historical townships of Aston, Knighton, Oakley, and Winnington most of which are small hamlets today. Mucklestone sits a mile north of the A53 road which connects Market Drayton, through Loggerheads, to Newcastle under Lyme and is merely a small village built around a t-junction. By contrast Loggerheads is a swelling village stretching for nearly a mile eastwards along the A53 and south too a similar distance. This area is a traditional pastoral area and Mucklestone would have followed that trend, the local stone, however, was of good quality and widely quarried for local use. Various small brooks drain the parish southwestwards all heading for the infant River Tern which is met close to Market Drayton, the Tern heads southwards thereafter before meeting the mighty Severn to the west of the Roman station of Wroxeter, the Severn then carries on southeast and south on its long journey to the sea arriving as the Bristol Channel. Mucklestone is sited at around 150 metres above the sea with Loggerheads close to 200 metres, the local high point on its hilltop. As would be expected for a western pastoral parish Mucklestone parish was extensive, covering over 8,500 acres of which just under 4,400 were within Shropshire, that total acreage supported a parish population of close to 1,700 parishioners albeit only around 200 lived in Mucklestone village. In Domesday times Mucklestone was very much a backwater and, indeed, was retained by its Saxon landholder, one Leofing, presumably its single plough backed by small meadows and woodland patches did not warrant Norman attention. Leofing also held the manor at Winnington with more woodland and meadows whilst another Saxon, Dunning held Knighton offering another plough and yet more meadows and woodland, Oakley was described as waste and in the hands of King William.

The Church

St Mary's church sits within the village of Mucklestone at its main junction of the B5026 with a westward running lane. Whilst only part of the church is medieval, the remainder was rebuilt in 1789 but that unremarkable building, in which most of these marriages took place, was itself replaced again in 1883 by today's main body of the church The medieval remainder is the western tower, a fine tower in the Decorated style of the early 14th century and totally in that design down to the characteristic tracery in its bell-openings. The 1789 rebuild of nave and chancel is described as unimpressive by Pevsner so perhaps it is fortunate that the 1883 nave and chancel chose to mimic the Decorated style so we now have a unified structure appearing consistent in its styling, a fact clearly pleasing to Pevsner. Internally one can see traces of the medieval masonry in perhaps situ whilst the original tower arch was retained through all of the changes. To the north of the sits a broad entranceway allow safe parking along the F5026, take care not to block the entranceway. The main entrance sits just into the side-lane, most of the churchyard being high above road height, here a steep set of steps climbs through arched metal gates into the churchyard. Whilst trees are close to both north and west all of the favoured aspects are readily available for the photographer.