England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Low Bentham St John

The Parish

The parish of Low Bentham, hereafter simply Bentham, lies in the far west of Yorkshire, within the West Riding and forming a stretch of the county's border with neighbouring Lancashire. Bentham has 4 main settlements which make up the parish, Low & High Bentham sit upon the B6480 road, a linking road crossing between the A65 (Skipton to Kendal) road and the A683 (Lancaster to Ingleton) road, both are formed around crossroads with High Bentham the slightly larger of the two despite Low Bentham granting the parish its name. In addition to these two substantial villages there are chapelries at both Ingleton, a large village on and to the north of the A65 and Chapel le Dale, a small hamlet high in the Dales at the head of the valley of the River Doe, both chapelries were licensed for marriages during the period of this transcript and will have their own pages. The parish of Bentham had a varied economy, in 1306 it was granted the right to hold a market by King Edward I and became a regional trading centre and host to specialist skilled trades, the wider parish was extensively farmed on the basis of upland grazing with sheep providing the main livestock, a byproduct of the many sheep was the wool which developed the parish's textile trades, weaving of both the wool and flax became local specialities before being superceded by the industrial mills of further south. Today the area attracts outdoors enthusiasts from fishermen tackling its clean and fast-flowing rivers to hikers tackling the higher hills of Ingleton & Chapel le Dale's areas including the iconic Ingleborough Fell. Modern developments have come to the area with the railway line linking Skipton with the West Coast Main Line at Carnforth passing through and granting High Bentham a station. The parish is drained by a combination of two main rivers, the Great and the Wenning, the latter river flowing through both Low & High Bentham, both eventually flow into the Lune and head to the Irish Sea arriving through Lancaster. The parish covers a wide range of height, Low Bentham being sited at around 60 metres above the sea with High Bentham at 110, the upper reaches of the wider parish reach 724 metres on the summit of mighty Ingleborough and much of the land covered by Ingleton & Chapel le Dale chapelries in strongly mountainous. Like many upland parishes in northern England Bentham parish covered a vast acreage, almost 26,000 acres according to some sources, this acreage would have supported a population of close to 3,550 parishioners but with almost half of these counted on the separate chapelry pages leaving closer to 1,800 specific to Low & High Bentham. Neither of these two settlements is mentioned in Domesday Book which has meagre coverage this far to the north of England.

The Church

St John's church sits to the southwest of Low Bentham almost on the banks of the Wenning and on the southern side of the B6480 adjacent to the complex of Cedar House School. Whilst the church has its origins in the later medieval period only the western tower can be said to be of that era due to restoration amounting to a rebuild of the main body between 1876 & 1878. The western tower is 15th century late Perpendicular in style, here the upper stages too have been subjected to restoration with the second stages largely of the 1870s and the topmost stages rebuilt in the late 20th century. The main body of a 2-bay nave and chancel  augmented with a northern porch, a northern vestry and southern chapel all carry the fabric rebuilt during the extensive work of the Victorians. Opposite to the churchyard entrance is a large roughly surfaced church car park allowing a relaxed visit, the churchyard is entered by wooden gates, it is rather cramped with much impacting the southern aspects as the church sits close to both trees and neighbouring school buildings, indeed the better landscape views are generally from the roadside itself.