England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Wolvey St John the Baptist

The Parish

The parish of Wolvey lies in northeastern Warwickshire forming part of the border with neighbouring Leicestershire. Wolvey is a large village located about 5 miles southeast of the industrial town of Nuneaton which on the B4109 road which connects the Leicestershire town of Hinckley with Coventry. The parish and county is bounded to the north by the ancient Roman Road of Watling Street, nowadays followed by the A5. Whilst to Wolvey's west lies the Warwickshire coalfield Wolvey would have been a farming settlement, the area's soils are poor and sandy, much of the parish being heathland at one time, so the regime would have seen some arable but largely used for low level grazing of sheep. The villagers' also supplemented their incomes with stocking & ribbon weaving. Modern developments have come to the area, the modern M69 motorway runs just west of Wolvey. Wolvey is drained by the infant River Anker which heads off northwestwards, joining the Tame near Tamworth and then the Trent at Alrewas before the latter heads east on its long jounry to the North Sea, reaching it through the Humber Estuary. Wolvey is sited at 110 metres above the sea in an area of very gentle terrain where local heights rarely rise to 140 metres for many miles. Wolvey parish was fairly typically sized for this area of the county, covering close to 3,400 acres it would have supported a population of just over 900 parishioners. In Domesday times Wolvey was a holding of one Robert de Vessey, relatively small place offering 7 ploughs and the usual meadows & pasture.

The Church

St John the Baptist's church sits on the northern edge of Wolvey close to the crossing of the B4109 over the Anker. Whilst the church has its origins in the 12th century and the Norman Romanesque period, little remains from that time. The southern doorway is the only significant piece dating from that era. The aisles also date back significantly being early 14th century and showing the reticulated tracery characteristic of that period. The western tower is later and Perpendicular in style. The church has, however, been much changed from these early times. A roof collapse in 1620 saw opportunity out of chaos and the chancel was re-worked in that decade. A series of phases of work followed in the Victorian and 20th century periods. The chancel was redone in 1858, a major restoration in the 1890s, a southern porch built in 1909 and a new stone floor and pews added in 1929 to reach today's church. There are two approaches to the church, either from the B4109 but that is busy and has little parking, or from the east where a narrow entrance leaves School Lane and has parking for a car or two. The churchyard once reached is open and relatively uncluttered making for an easy subject to capture.