England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Allerton Mauleverer St Martin

The Parish

The parish of Allerton Mauleverer lies in western central Yorkshire close to the border between West & North Ridings and some 4 1/2 miles east of the town of Knaresborough. Allerton Mauleverer sits about a half mile north of the A59 road which links Kanresborough with York and a similar distance east of the A1 Great North Road linking London & Edinburgh. The village takes its suffix from the name of the major family, the Mauleverers, who held the manor until 1721, they founded a Benedictine priory here during the reign of Henry II. Much of the village of Allerton Mauleverer was, however, removed to create the parkland estate of Allerton Park which now occupies most of the land between church and A1. The remaining properties being merely a scatter of fams and cottages across the wider parish. The economy of the parish was largely dictated by the estate and this far north was a mixture of hardy grains and pastoral regimes in roughly equal measures. Modern developments have come to the parish, the York to Knaresborough railway line skirts the southern edges without gracing a station whilst the A1 is nowadays upgraded to motorway standard as the A1M. Allerton Mauleverer is drained eastwards by the Whixley Cut becoming the Pool Beck before joining the Nidd and then the Yorkshire Ouse, like most Dales rivers the latter makes it was to the North Sea arriving through the Humber Estuary. Allerton Mauleverer is sited at around 50 metres above the sea in gentle terrain within the Vale of York where local heights rarely are higher and few are above 60 metres. At just under 2,200 acres Allerton Mauleverer parish was fairly typically sized for a northern rural parish, within that acreage would have been supported close to 250 parishioners. Allerton Mauleverer is recorded in Domesday Book shared between King William and two gentlemen who appear to be Saxon survivors from their names, typically for a settlement this far north the area is largely described as "waste" taken to mean un-adopted land awaiting development.

The Church

St Martin's church sits on the eastern edge of Allerton Park's parkland in a crook of Allerton Lane to its west the road declines into a footpath headed for Whixley. The creation of the park changed the landscape thoroughly when it was made and the medieval cruciform "ancient structure" as described in early gazetteers was a victim of the re-laying-out too. The present church was built in 1745 and grudgingly included a little of medieval fabric from its predecessor within its construction. The cruciform layout was retained with both aisled nave and long chancel but curiously the tower, rather than being a central crossing tower, is placed over the western bay of the nave. Curiously Pevsner describes the style as a mixture of "Gothick, Palladian and proto Neo-Norman" and lead him to further describe the church "very strange but not unattractive". The largest portion of retained medieval is restricted to the southern nave aracade which shows 14th century styling but all else refers to the mid 18th century. Parking close to the church appears not to be an issue with wide open verges allowing careful off-road sites. The churchyard is enclosed in tall and impressive stone walling through which a small wooden gate grants entry. Whilst the western end of the church has tightly enclosing trees the other aspects are available to the photographer.