England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Bolton upon Dearne St Andrew

The Parish

The parish of Bolton upon Dearne lies in southern Yorkshire within the West Riding roughly 7 miles north of the industrial town of Rotherham. Bolton upon Dearne, as its suffix suggests, stands on the northern banks of the River Dearne and about 2 miles south of the A635 road which links Doncaster with Barnsley. Bolton upon Dearne is a much grown settlement, early maps show a settlement which ran west from St Andrew's church following the line of today's High Street as far as, the now gone, Bolton Hall and the whole paralleling the course of the Dearne. For much of its existence Bolton upon Dearne was a simple farming settlement, mixed arable and pastoral methods would have been in place, there was some extraction of shallow-seamed coal and charcoal production but all was to change with the modern development of coal mining in the area. The arrival of the Dearne & Dove Canal in 1804 and the railways in 1840 sparked a coal mining boom, now it was deep-shaft mining, which transformed a small farming village into an industrialised mining town. Bolton upon Dearne expanded from its base to become contiguous with neighbouring Goldthorpe to the north to create an urban area a half mile from west to east but 2 miles from north to south. Today the pits have all closed and Bolton upon Dearne has become somewhat post-industrial serving only as a commuter settlement, aided by its railway station, serving the larger towns of the area. Bolton upon Dearne is drained east by the Dearne which meets the Don at Conisbrough, passes through Doncaster and becomes largely man-influenced by canalisation as it heads to the Humber Estuary and the North Sea. Bolton upon Dearne is sited at around 30metres above the sea in its valley setting, land rises steadily from the Dearne with a few spots to the northeast just breaching the 100 metre contour. Covering 2,400 acres Bolton upon Dearne parish was typically sized for this area and would have supported a population rising to around 650 parishioners. In Domesday times Bolton upon Dearne was a small manor of just 11 households shared between Roger de Bully and William Percy, the assets of 6 ploughs, meadows & woodland and a mill were typical of many farming manors of the time.

The Church

St Andrew's church once marked the eastern end of the original small village, it now stands at the junction of High Street with Angel Street. St Andrew is one of the very few pre-Conquest churches surviving in the south of the county and it probably originated as early as the 10th or 11th century. Saxon long-and-short work and massive quoins adorn the nave, the long-and-short-work deemed to be the northernmost example in the land. A blocked Saxon doorway is also visible in the nave's southern wall. The 12th century saw a Norman Romanesque northern arcade added to the church of 2-bays which follows the same design as that at York Minster. In the early 14th century the chancel was rebuilt in the Decorated style with the northern aisle similarly rebuilt. The church's western tower was the final medieval addition being Perpendicular in style and either 15th or even 16th century. There were 2 typical Victorian restorations recorded in Pevsner with out detail of the work carried out, the first in 1854 followed by a second phase in 1894. Most of the roads surrounding the churchyard have on-street parking allowing a relaxed visit. The churchyard is a raised oblong elongated from north to south with steps rising into it from the northwestern corner, clumps of trees to the northwest, east and south limit the views available for the photographer requiring some scouting around to find the best angles.