England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Killington All Saints

The Parish

The chapelry of Killington, its mother parish being Kirkby Lonsdale, lies in southeastern Westmorland forming part of the border with neighbouring Yorkshire. Killington is located roughly 4 miles southwest of the small Yorkshire market town of Sedbergh and sits, across the River Lune, a little over a mile west of the A683 road which connects Sedbergh with Kirkby Lonsdale. Killington is a relatively small place, little more than a hamlet, that sits in a side valley off that of the Lune's and has a few farms and cottages gathered on its main lane just south of the 15th century hall and the parish church. The chapelry occupies hill-country and the main employers of the area applies, Herdwick sheep, the local speciality, graze the adjacent fells while a cattle graze the lusher pastures of the nearby Lune's water-meadows, a small quarrying activity also took place mainly for local building stone. A small beck, Hall Beck, drains the chapelry into the nearby Lune which heads south, passing through Kirkby Lonsdale to eventually reach the Irish Sea through Lancaster and its estuary into the southern extremities of Morecambe Bay. Killington is sited at around 120 metres above the sea, fells rise more gently to the west to local heights of 226 metres on Wakebarrow Scar whilst across the Lune rise the main Pennine range with Calf Top at 609 metres looming large in the eastern horizon. The chapelry included almost 4,800 acres of the vast Kirkby Lonsdale parish within which it would have supported a population of around 300 parishioners. Killington is not specifically mentioned in Domesday Book which has scant coverage this far north.

The Church

All Saints' church sits a few metres north of Killington's main lane, in close proximity to its hall and accessed on a surfaced track which becomes a public footpath beyond the church. The church is a plain and simple structure with both nave and chancel combined, the western end is graced with a short tower which also forms the porch. Because of substantial later reworking it is difficult to assign precise dates to the fabric but Pevsner hesitantly assigns the church's origins to the 14th century. The 17th century, an usual period for church-building, saw many of the windows replaced in a rather plain style whilst the usual Victorian restoration of two campaigns saw much altered. The first of 1868 dealt with the roof whilst that of 1895 was a more general restoration and also added the vestry. A small wooden footpath sign indicates the track to hall & church, it descends and crosses Hall Beck and the church is immediately beyond on the eastern side. The church's western tower actually protrudes into the track whilst the main body sits within a greatly wooded churchyard which removes all of the favoured southern aspects from the photographer's arsenal and makes for a challenging shoot on a sunny day as only those from the north are clear.