England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Aberford St Ricarius

The Parish

The parish of Aberford lies in western central Yorkshire about 7 miles south of the market town of Wetherby. Aberford sits on the former route of the A1, that road having been upgraded to motorway standard now bypasses Aberford immediately to its east. The old "Great North Road" follows the line of an ancient Roman Road and Aberford, as its name suggests, grew up where that route crossed the small River Cock. Aberford thus consists of a long line of properties fronting the old route with modern infill north of the Cock at St Johns, the parish also contained the township of Parlington to the southwest but no village exists there today. Aberford was a substantial place in medieval times, being granted a market in 1251, sadly that function has dwindled and has passed to nearby Tadcaster & others. Aberford sits upon limestone with Carboniferous coal measures below, at one time a small coal mine provided variation to an otherwise arable farming regime with cereals dominant. Modern developments have improved Aberford's air quality by diverting traffic to the nearby A1M, indeed both A1M and M1 meet immediately south of the village in one of the nation's most important road junctions. The River Cock drains the parish eastwards in a meandering course to join the Wharfe to the south of Tadcaster before passing, along with most major Yorkshire rivers, into the North Sea through the Humber Estuary.  Aberford is sited at between 40 and 60 metres, its northern reaches being higher, land is fairly gentle with local heights rising to close to 100 metres to the southwest. For a lowland parish Aberford was quite extensive, covering a little over 3,800 acres it would have supported a population of just under 1,100 parishioners. In Domesday times Parlington was the more dominant holding, Aberford not being specifically mentioned, Parlington was a holding of Ilbert de Lacy and could offer an impressive 29 ploughs, extensive meadows and woodland together with 3 mills making for a very wealthy holding indeed.

The Church

St Ricarius' church (a unique dedication referring to a 7th century Frankish hermit) sits on the western side of the old A1, here called Main Street, immediately south of its junction with the lane running to Barwick in Elmet. Sadly little remains of the church in which these marriages took place following extensive rebuild in Victorian times. The main piece of early work remains the western tower which has a core of Norman Romanesque style from the 12th century. Even this original piece has later modifications with the parapet dating from the Perpendicular period of the late medieval and the rest heavily restored during the Victorian changes. The main body of the church also dates from that Victorian period having been extensively rebuilt in the both the mid 1840s and early 1860s, a token gesture remains a single Norman window reused in the chancel northern wall showing the loss of a very early predecessor. Main Street is sufficiently wide for street parking albeit restricted immediately outside the church's entrance. The churchyard is raised significantly above road level and beyond the wooden gates a flight of steps rises to the church's level. Whilst most of the churchyard is open and unrestricted for viewing that western tower is slightly hemmed in by a close border to its west limiting views of that early portion.