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

The Parish

The parish of Willey lies in the extreme northeast of Warwickshire forming a stretch of the county's border with neighbouring Leicestershire, here formed by the A5 road which follows the ancient line of the Romans' Watling Street. Willey is located roughly 3 miles west of the Leicestershire market town of Lutterworth and sits just a quarter mile south of the A5 road this ancient route-way which ultimately links London to Holyhead in Anglesey. Willey is a small linear settlement running north to south for a quarter mile along a narrow lane. At the time of this transcript and indeed still today Willey was a farming parish with roughly equal parts pastoral and arable, in more modern times it has moved more towards arable. Modern developments have come to the parish, the Midland Railway line from Rugby to Leicester once passed through but has now closed leaving just cuttings and bridges to mark its passing, the neighbouring A5 has been upgraded in stretches into a fast dual-carriageway highway. Willey sits at the headwaters of the River Soar which gathers many small streams before passing through Leicester and onwards to join the Trent for that long journey to the Humber Estuary and the North Sea, Willey is sited at around 120 metres above the sea on one of the nations' main watersheds, water trending westwards takes the Avon & Severn to the Bristol Channel, this being one of the higher spots in the immediate area. Willey parish was one of the smaller in its county covering just 745 acres and supporting a population of around 150 parishioners. Domesday Willey was held by the Count of Meulan and was an  equally small and rural manor offering just 9 ploughs and some small meadows.

The Church

St Leonard's church sits on the eastern side of Main Street towards the northern end of the village. The medieval components of the church have been heavily modified during Victorian times but enough remains to date the bulk of the church to the Perpendicular era and from the late 14th into the 15th century. The nave and western tower are the most complete elements from that late medieval era although Historic England gives a wide range of construction dates. The western tower is of interest for its rood-loft turret which Pevsner describes as "uncommonly prominent". Much else dates from the Victorian restorations of the 1880s which almost amounted to a complete rebuild of those targeted elements. From 1880 -1881 the tower was restores and from 1884 - 1885 the remainder which completely rebuilt most of the chancel and the chancel arch. Whilst Main Street is rather narrow it is well used by locals for on-street parking. The church sits well back from the road, a small metal gate lies alongside the southern boundary wall and leads to the church. The churchyard is rather cluttered with thick tree cover from almost every angles except the southwest, the photographer will need to search for any suitable angles.