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

The Parish

The parish of Burythorpe lies in eastern central Yorkshire roughly 4 miles south of the town of Malton. Burythorpe sits within an area devoid of significant numbered roads, the closest such road being at Malton, the A64 linking York with Scarborough. Burythorpe sits at the base of the Yorkshire Wolds as a spring-line settlement below a steep escarpment. The village consists largely of a single north to south running street, at its northern end the late 18th century Burythorpe House, now a hotel, whilst the southern end has the village inn. To the north by a mile lies Kennythorpe, a subsidiary hamlet with a small beck running through. Like most parishes in this area of the county Burythorpe was a farming parish and largely arable as it is today. Both the beck at Kennythorpe and the Clombe Beck to the east drain the parish northwards before tuning west to meet the Derwent headed southwest to York, here it merges with the Dales rivers to pass into the North Sea through the Humber Estuary. Burythorpe is sited at between 60 & 80 metres above the sea on rising ground, the escarpment, rises abruptly to the south to 230 metres on nearby Leavening Brow. By the standards of its area Burythorpe was a relatively small parish of 1,200 acres which would have supported a population of close to 200 parishioners. In Domesday times Burythorpe was, typically for the north, recovering from the "harrowing of the north" and was merely described as "waste" with no assets.

The Church

All Saints' church sits away from its village to the west and is accessed by a roughly surfaced track-cum-footpath, it stands in splendid isolation atop a low hill. Sadly this is not a medieval church but a relatively modern replacement having been completed in 1858 and thus was not the venue for these marriages. Consisting of nave and chancel with a western bellcote, the church is built using the 13th century Early English Gothic style with lancets prominent in the western wall below the bellcote. Whilst the track is driveable and ends in a turning area suitable for parking, that area is often rather muddy and might create an issue following rain. The main village street is suitable for on-road parking and it is only a short stroll to the church which stands within a churchyard with no obstacles whatsoever for the photographer.