England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Birkin St Mary

The Parish

The parish of Birkin lies in southern central Yorkshire roughly 6 miles southwest of the town of Selby. Birkin sits just over 2 miles north of the A645 road which links Ferrybridge with Snaith. Whilst Birkin grants its name to the parish it is by no means the only settlement in it, the parish is a narrow strip of land paralleling the course of the River Aire for roughly 9 miles whilst of no great depth from north to south,Birkin is the westernmost of a series of villages, a small linear settlement on a cut-off channel of the Aire, the Old Eye. Moving eastwards one comes, in turn, to West Haddesley, a linear village lining the river's course, Chapel Haddesley, a crossroads settlement where the Selby to Doncaster road crosses the river, Temple Hirst and Hirst Courtney, twin villages lining the meanders of the river. Such is the collection of settlements that Birkin, itself, only held less than 20% of the parish population. Much of the parish was set to arable, early gazetteers estimate roughly 3:2 in favour of arable over pastoral methods, the principal crops being cereals, beans and root crops, whilst the water-meadows of the Aire provided rich grazing. In addition the Aire was fully navigable, if very meandering, allowing the development of modest movement of agricultural produce to the booming industrial towns further west. Modern developments have come to the parish, the Selby Canal, linking that town to the Aire, being the first to arrive; it was followed by the railway line between Selby & Doncaster which passes through just west of Temple Hirst. Birkin is drained eastwards by the Aire which makes its way to the Humber Estuary and thus to the North Sea. Birkin is sited at just 7 metres above the sea, indeed the entire parish acreage sits below the 10 metre contour in flat land, often subject to flooding from the Aire much of which now sits between levees. Birkin parish covered almost 5,900 acres which would have supported a population of close to 900 parishioners. In Domesday times only Birkin is mentioned as a holding of Ilbert de Lacy offering just 3 ploughs, meadows & woodland and a mill. 

The Church

St Mary's church stands at Birkin village, in the very west of the parish and so remote from such as Chapel Haddesley that a chapel-of-ease was created to serve that village, the church stands almost on the banks of the Old Eye cut-off channel where Main Street becomes Intake Lane. Most of the church is of the 12th century and Pevsner rightly opens his account by stating that St Mary is "one of the most impressive and complete Norman village churches in Yorkshire". The main period of build may well have commenced as early as 1130 with most work completed by the 1160s. Built in ashlar blocks the church comprises the usual nave and chancel together with an elegant western tower and, most unusually, an apse which is viewed as a great rarity, all was built in an apparent single campaign. For those with an interest Pevsner waxes lyrical over 2 entire pages of dense text describing in detail the features of this wonderful survival, suffice it to say it is a national treasure. There are only 3 notable changes made subsequent to the church's initial build, In 1328 a broad southern aisle, associated with a chantry chapel, was added in the Decorated style, in the 15th century the western tower was given a Perpendicular styled top and in 1882 a typical Victorian restoration added the timber porch after resetting the sumptuous Romanesque southern doorway. A short driveway leads from the junction of Main Street with Birkin Lane allowing a single vehicle to safely park off-road. The churchyard has no obstacles to photography whatsoever.