England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Rocester St Michael

The Parish

The parish of Rocester lies in the extreme east of Staffordshire forming a lengthy stretch of the county's border with neighbouring Derbyshire, here formed by the course of the River Dove. Rocester is located roughly 5 miles north of the market town of Uttoxeter and sits immediately east of the B5030 road which heads northeast from Uttoxeter becoming the B5032 to reach Ashbourne in Derbyshire. Rocester is a large village which is constrained in it site by being placed on a narrow neck of land between the rivers Dove and Churnet, it forms a square of roughly a quarter mile each side. The position was obviously easily defensible so Rocester has an early origin as a Roman fort dating from the late 1st century to abandonment in c200. In medieval times the site attracted an Augustinian Abbey founded in the mid 12th century which flourished until the dissolution and disappeared its exact location and architecture not fully resolved. Much of the transcript period the village was mid-sized and relatively modest until modern developments started to arrive. Initially canals and then multiple railway lines, most have closed and disappeared from the landscape, brought investment as the famous Richard Arkwright established a cotton mill in the late 18th century to be followed in more modern times by the massive plant of JCB to the west. The wider parish was dominated by the lush meadows of the rivers with pastoral farming dominant therein with cereals grown on drier ground. The twin rivers of Dove and Churnet drain the parish southwards soon combining, as the Dove water turns southeast to eventually meet the Trent to the northeast of Burton Upon Trent and continuing on the long journey to the North Sea arriving through the Humber Estuary. Rocester is sited at around 90 metres above the sea to the west across the Churnet land rises into the fore-hills of the Peak District reaching heights of around 200 metres at nearby Hollington and higher still further westwards. Rocester parish covered close to 2,400 acres and supported a population of around 1,100 parishioners, a figure little exceeded even in the late 20th century. Domesday Rocester was a substantial manor shared between King William and Henry de Ferrers, it offered assets of 17 ploughs, meadows & woodland and there was a mill making for a wealthy holding.

The Church

St Michael's church sits towards the eastern edge of the village within an extensive open area of ground south of Church Lane and usually accessed from its junction with West View. As can readily be seen the church is essentially a late-Victorian and modern looking church, the product of a rebuild completed in 1872. The original medieval church was first extended and then replaced by today's structure and was the venue for these marriages rather than the present church. The earliest remaining feature of the extended medieval church is the western tower which had been rebuilt in Georgian times, dates of 1751 or 1823 are indicated but which is uncertain according to Pevsner. The extensive rebuild of 1870 - 1872 rebuilt the nave, southern aisle and northern porch together with the chancel and its long chapel or vestry as well as adding today's bell-openings and recessed spire to the western tower - almost a new church by the time it was finished. Sadly subsidence forced a further rebuild of the chancel and its adjoining chapel in work carried out between 1988 and 1991. Church Lane is best for on-street parking with the entrance set into the start of West View which is mostly merely a footpath, a neat lychgate grants entry to the extensive churchyard which has no obstacles for the photographer.