England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Ackworth St Cuthbert

The Parish

The parish of Ackworth lies in southwestern Yorkshire roughly 3 miles south of the town of Pontefract. Ackworth consists of three distinct settlements, two of which sit upon the A628 road which links Pontefract with Barnsley. The original main settlement and which contains the parish church is High Ackworth, the more northern of the 3. High Ackworth, as its name suggests, stands on the slopes of a low hill at the point where the A628 performs a double right-angled bend to pass through, most properties line the main road. To the southeast sits Low Ackworth, a crossroads village situated between the A628 and the railway line. The largest of the three settlements is Ackworth Moor Top which developed as a pit village to exploit the mines and quarries of the south of the parish and has outgrown the 2 earlier settlements. It too is a crossroads settlement with its centre at the junction of the A628 with the A638 (Wakefield to Doncaster) road, it stretches for a mile westwards along the latter road and northwards for over a quarter mile. Ackworth at the time of this transcript was largely agricultural with a mixture of both farming methods, hand-loom weaving was also a major employer as was quarrying of the local sandstone, the coal mines of the south of the parish were deep and whilst they created a new community they have now all closed. Modern developments have come to the area, the above mentioned railway line linking Pontefract with Rotherham passes to the east whilst that from Wakefield to both Rotherham and Doncaster grazes the southern edges of the parish. Ackworth is drained eastwards by the infant River Went, once that river reaches the Fenland area of Yorkshire it becomes increasingly man-influenced eventually heading into the Aire though the straight cut of the Dutch River and thus to the North Sea through the Humber Estuary. In increasing height Low Ackworth sits at 30 metres, High Ackworth at 40 and Ackworth Moor Top at 50 metres above the sea, to the north of High Ackworth a water-tower stands at 76 metres the highest point for a few miles. Like many parishes in this area Ackworth was a large one covering just over 2,500 acres and supporting a population of around 1,800 parishioners. Ackworth is not mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

St Cuthbert's church stands in High Ackworth accessed from the apex of the right angled-bend that takes the A628 southwards through the village, a short dead-end lane leads to the churchyard. Sadly little remains that is medieval in this church, largely due to a fire in 1852 and the subsequent rebuilding of the main body of the church in 1855. The rather plain and straightforward Perpendicular western tower survived the fire, it appears to be entirely of the early 15th century. All of the rest, however, is from the rebuild and thus not the venue for these marriages. Interestingly the main body was rebuilt using the earlier Decorated style and Pevsner speculates that this may well have been an attempt to recreate the pre-fire church. The broad lane leading to the entrance lychgate is broad with space for safe parking and turning. The churchyard presents difficulties for the photographer being compact and beset by trees severely limiting the acceptable viewpoints available, much scouting around is required to achieve good images.