England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Wychnor St Leonard

The Parish

The chapelry of Wychnor (sometimes spelt Wichnor), its mother parish being Tatenhill from which it is detached, lies in the extreme east of Staffordshire forming a stretch of the county's border with neighbouring Derbyshire. Wychnor is located roughly 6 miles northeast of the city of Lichfield and stands a half mile west of the A38 road which links Lichfield with Burton upon Trent. Wychnor is a tiny place, little more than a hamlet and isolated, it can only be accessed by a dead-end road which leaves the northbound carriageway of the A38. The church and a few cottages occupy a further dead-end lane which ends at the banks of the Trent & Mersey Canal. There is evidence that Wychnor was once much larger but only humps and bumps in the ground mark its deserted medieval village. To the west Wychnor Hall, an early 18th century house, stands within a small parkland setting. Wychnor would primarily have been a pastoral farming settlement, the rich alluvial soils of the River Trent's floodplain providing good grazing. Modern development abound, the Trent & Mersey Canal was first to arrive quickly followed by the Lichfield to Burton upon Trent railway line and finally the A38, following the ancient Roman Ryknield Street, has been upgraded to fasy dual-carriageway highway. Wychnor is drained by the Trent which heads off towards the East Midlands and Nottingham before turning north at Newark to reach the North Sea through the Humber Estuary. Wychnor is sited at around 60 metres above the sea in generally flattish terrain where the 70 metre contour is only breached in a few spots. Just over 1,600 acres was assigned to Wychnor chapelry which would have supported a population of close to 150 parishioners, the dearth of marriages would indicate that most would have been celebrated at the mother church. Wychnor does have an entry in Domesday Book the holding of Robert of Stafford, a small place then as now it offered a single plough, meadows & woodland but did have a mill.

The Church

St Leonard's church sits almost on the banks of the Trent & Mersey Canal at the southern end of Church Lane alongside a few cottages. Like many small rural churches St Leonard has fabric from the earliest times, Pevsner finds remnants of the small 12th century Norman Romanesque church which preceded today's church, part of a Norman door-head survives reused in the nave's northern wall. That early church was rebuilt in the first half of the 14th century in the Decorated style which dominates through the building. The core of nave, chancel and southwestern tower was established in this style together with the southern aisle. During the Tudor period of either 16th or 17th centuries the tower was extended upwards in a diaper brickwork, at the same time the eastern tower arch was reset into the arcade. A typical Victorian restoration of 1875 made the usual refresh as well as creating the east window of the chancel and replacing most of the internal fixtures and fittings. Church Lane terminates at the church and has ample space for visiting car parking, remember there is only any access from the northbound carriageway of the A38. The churchyard being compact is the main difficulty for the photographer.