England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Braithwell St James

The Parish

The parish of Braithwell lies in southern Yorkshire within the West Riding and roughly 6 1/2 miles east of the industrial town of Rotherham. Braithwell sits on the B6376 road which links Maltby through to the A630 and onward to Doncaster. Braithwell is the main settlement within the parish, a simple crossroads village that has expanded a little southward from its original core at the parish church, in addition to Braithwell the parish included the chapelry of Bramley, nowadays a larger settlement sitting on the A631 road between Maltby & Rotherham, the chapelry was not licensed for marriages during the transcript period.
Braithwell has an interesting historical story, it was highly generous in contributing to the ransom to free King Richard I from his post-Crusade captivity in Germany, once freed the grateful king granted the small village a charter for a market. Needless to say that market was unsuccessful but the cross with Norman French inscription still resides in the village. The two main villages have had differing trajectories over the centuries, whilst both were largely agricultural for most of their existence with arable dominant, it was Bramley which sat on the coal measures and from 1910 with the opening of Maltby Main Colliery it expanded rapidly as a mining boom town. In common with most if not all of the area's mines Maltby has now closed. One notable local industry came from the local red iron oxide which was made into dyes, some glove making also took place employing a few. Modern developments have come aplenty to the area, the railway line linking the Maltby mines with the main Doncaster to Mexborough line has closed but roads have been upgraded, the A631 to modern dual-carriageway highway whilst the M18 motorway connecting Sheffield with Hull passes through with a major junction with the A631 encouraging commuting to both Rotherham and Doncaster. Braithwell is drained eastwards by small brooks which merge to form the Goole Dike to the east of Tickhill and eventually becoming more established as the River Torne, the Torne is eventually channeled by man-made waterways to the Trent just before it meets the Humber Estualy and the North Sea. Braithwell is sited on a limestone knoll at around 110 metres above the sea the limestone sises northwestwards topping out at a spot height of 142 metres. Braithwell parish together with Bramley chapelry totalled just over 3,800 acres and would have supported a population of close to 800 parishioners. Both Braithwell & Bramley were recorded in Domesday Book, their collective population being large enough to place them in the top 20%, William de Warenne held Bramley & a share of Braithwell with William de Percy having the balance, the collective assets totalled 25 ploughs and extensive woodland.

The Church

St James church sits slightly west of the notional centre of Braithwell on the southern side of Micklebring Lane. The church was founded in the early 12th century as a simple single-celled church, the only surviving feature from this proto-church is the tympanum re-sited into the southern doorway. Various building scars indicate that in the late 12th century, during the brief Transitional era, it was intended to complete the church in a cruciform layout but the work was never completed. It was the early 14th century before the church was actually expanded with the construction of the southern aisle, initially intended as a chantry chapel. A tower was finally added to the church, but at the western end during the 15th century and in the Perpendicular style, it has 3-stages and comes with louvred belfry windows, and an embattled parapet with crocketed pinnacles. There is disagreement over the age of the first chancel that the church acquired, Pevsner placing it in the early 14th century whilst the Historic Churches Trust places it in the Tudor era, either way today's chancel stems from the major Victorian restoration of 1845 whence it was rebuilt. Further work followed in 1895 when the organ chamber cum vestry was completed. To both east and west of the churchyard there are laybys for safe on-street parking, the churchyard does have one or two clumps of trees which means careful scouting is required to obtain the better views.