England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Bubwith All Saints

The Parish

The parish of Bubwith lies in southern Yorkshire, within the East Riding, about 7 miles northeast of the town of Selby. Bubwith sits on the A163 road which links Selby though to Holme on Spalding Moor. Bubwith is a linear settlement formed where the A163 crosses the River Derwent, the main set of properties lie alongside the A163 to both north and south, in addition there is a small southerly extension holding the parish church. Bubwith parish was, however, rather extensive and included several townships within in area, Gunby, to the south a half mile, is little more than a riverside hamlet, Breighton, almost a mile further south, is a substantial riverside village with a riverside frontage and a World War II airfield, Harlthorpe, about a mile east and Foggathorpe, 2 miles to the east, are simple crossroads hamlets, Grinthorpe, a miles south of Foggathorpe, is just a group of farmsteads, Spaldington, a further mile south, is a small village built around a T-junction of lanes and back towards Bubwith there is Willitoft, a small estate village. Altogether less than 40% of the parish population actually lived in Bubwith. The whole area of the parish is low-lying land with flooding from both the Derwent, to the west, and the Foulness, to the east, being a constant historical problem. The land was thus rich and fertile from the sediments but best suited to pastoral methods. The parish is drained mainly by the Derwent, although the east of the parish is served by the River Foulness and man-made drainage channels into the outer Humber Estuary, which heads south to meet the Ouse at Drax before passing into the North Sea through the Humber Estuary. All of Bubwith parish sits below the 10 metre contour, the rivers at 4 metres indicating a flat plain criss-crossed by water channels. Bubwith township covered just 1,300 acres but this was a mere subset of the whole parish which probably covered closer to 10,000, the parish population would have been close to 1,350 parishioners of whom 500 were residents of Bubwith. In Domesday Book Bubwith is recorded but so are Spaldington & Willitoft and Breighton, collectively the assets of these 3 manors combine to the equivalent of today's parish with 12 ploughs and some woodland aggregated across the several landholders.

The Church

All Saints' church sits at the western corner of Bubwith, close to the course of the Derwent and accessed by the looping Church Street. All Saints is a church with a long history and much fabric remaining from the earliest period of stone-built churches, the 12th century Norman Romanesque period. The chancel arch and eastern wall of the nave show the style to good effect with the original gable end shown with diagonally tooled masonry, the chancel also shows the head of an original Norman window. From the simple 12th century church there have been two distinct enlargements, the first came in the 13th century in the Early English Gothic style when aisles were added, of 3-bays they show the characteristic round piers and double-chamfered arches. The second phase of enlargement came in the great church-building era of the Perpendicular, the late 14th and 15th centuries. All Saints received its impressive western tower complete with battlements and corner pinnacles, the nave was extended an additional bay and the clerestory was inserted to improve internal lighting. At the eastern end the chancel's east window was replaced with a new east window of 5 lights. All of this work is placed in time by will donations which place it into the early to mid 15th century. Like most churches there was a Victorian restoration, her it fell in 1895, it must have been fairly light as no major additions appear to have been made. The is ample on-street parking to the east of the churchyard entrance in Church Street, the church is set a little back with a short approach to the lychgate. Unfortunately for the photographer the churchyard is very busy with substantial blocks of trees which severely limit the angles available, some scouting around is required to find the better views.