England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Staveley St Margaret

The Parish

The chapelry of Staveley, its mother parish being the immense parish of Kendal, lies in southwestern Westmorland roughly 5 miles northwest of Kendal. Staveley sits on the former route of the A591 road, which thankfully is diverted southwards on to a bypass nowadays, which links Kendal with Windermere. Staveley is a mid-sized village largely built around a triangular shape formed by the twin courses of the rivers Kent and Gowan which meet to its southeast, the Main Street parallels the Kent with side branches spreading westwards on flatter land. Staveley is an upland chapelry which sits on the boundary between the coastal hills and the true mountains of the Lake District National Park, the land to its south being largely used for pasturing cattle whilst the hardy Herdwick sheep populate the higher ground to the north. In the past veins of good quality lead ore were worked although this has now ceased. Modern developments have come to the chapelry with the construction of the short branch line also linking Windermere to the main north to south line at Oxenholme and granting Staveley a station. Today Staveley is a base for the outdoor tourism that marks the Lake District, a stop of the Dales Way National Trail and gateway to the high hills in the upper reaches of the Kent. Staveley is drained southeastwards by the Kent which passes through Kendal before reaching the Irish Sea though the extensive estuary within Morecambe Bay. Staveley is sited between 100 and 120 metres above the sea, its western edges being furthest from the Kent are the higher, land rises strongly northeast into mountainous terrain reaching 427 metres on Brunt Knott whilst in Kentmere Park to the northwest it tops out at 516 metres. Roughly 5,000 acres of Kendal parish are assigned to Staveley chapelry and the population supported ran to around 500 parishioners. Domesday Book has no coverage this far to the north so Staveley is not mentioned in that book.

The Church

The former chapel-of-ease of St Margaret, now merely the tower, sits on the eastern side of Main Street within a small park-like area. Whilst the land was granted for the chapel-of-ease in 1338 nothing of the 14th century survives, indeed the remaining tower is late-Perpendicular in style and dates from c1589. By the 19th century the medieval nave and chancel had been replaced by what Pevsner terms a "plain box with Gothick windows" but this edifice too has been removed. Today the chapelry, nowadays a full parish, is served by the 1865 church of St James which stands at the northern edges of the village. Main Street has parking bays along its western side allowing a visit, there is little to cause the photographer any inconvenience at the site.