England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Sheen St Luke

The Parish

The parish of Sheen lies in the extreme northeast of Staffordshire forming a substantial part of the border with neighbouring Derbyshire. Sheen is located about 9 miles northeast of the market town of Leek and sits, in lanes, about 2 miles north of the B5054 which connects the Derbyshire village of Hartington with Ipstones. Sheen is a tiny place, little more than a hamlet with farms and cottages straggling along a north to south running lane through the high ground of the Staffordshire Peak District. Sheen sits a little away from the western banks of the headwaters of the River Dove in what is known as Beresford Dale and sitting upstream of the Dove's more famous Dale. An upland settlement Sheen would have largely earned its income from pastoral farming, sheep on the higher ground and cattle in the dale, some income would also have come from local quarrying activity. Today the area is renowned for its scenery and abounds with hikers through the warmer seasons. The Dove drains the parish southwards, eventually reaching the Trent just east of the brewing town of Burton upon Trent and thence eastwards to eventually reach the North Sea through the Humber Estuary. Sheen is sited at around 280 metres above the sea on a ridge of high ground sandwiched between Dove and Manifold, land rises still higher to reach 380 metres on nearby Sheen Hill. As an upland parish Sheen was large but not one of the largest, it covered just over 3,000 acres and would have supported a population of close to 400 parishioners. In Domesday times Sheen was held directly by the King, a poor and little populated area it was described in the book as "waste".

The Church

St Luke's church sits on the eastern side of the main north to south running lane through the parish. If there were a mediaeval original church there is little of its remaining. The rebuilding of the church began in 1850 and would seem to have been run-of-the-mill until the patron of the living one Mr. Beresford-Hope passed the rebuilding into the hands of his acquaintances within the Cambridge Camden Society, a grouping of learned men formed by Cambridge University undergraduates to promote the study of Gothic architecture. Whilst the details are obscure it is clear that significant features of the church such as the recessed pyramidal roof of the western tower was a result of this design change. Entry is at the southwestern corner of the site into a churchyard which, once through the screening trees, is open and with few obstacles to photography