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

The Parish

The parish of Cawthorne, created a full parish in 1608 from Silkstone, lies in southwestern Yorkshire not too far from the borders with both Cheshire & Derbyshire. Cawthorne is located roughly 5 miles west of the industrial town of Barnsley and sits on and mostly north of the A635 road which links Barnsley with Holmfirth and through to Oldham in Lancashire. Cawthorne is a substantial village, rather linear in form, which stretches parallel with the A635 for almost a mile along the southern edges of the former parkland of Cannon Hall nowadays a Country Park. Whilst Cannon Hall, an early 18t century mansion, sits in delightful countryside it is to industry and the extractive industries in particular that Cawthorne owes its economy. Coal was mined in abundance and the local ironstone of such quality that it made the fortune that enable Cannon Hall to be built. Besides these profitable businesses the local sandstone were extensively quarried for building stone whilst the wider parish was largely farmed in a  mixed regime dominated by pastoral methods. A network of light railways once supported the mines & iron-works all largely gone today. Other modern developments impact the eastern edges of the parish where the modern M1 motorway squeezes between Cawthorne and Barnsley. Cawthorne is drained eastwards by the Cawthorne Dike which meets the River Dearne to the northwest of Barnsley turning southeast to eventually meet the Don at Comisbrough, the Don, much canalised, eventually joins the throng of rivers converging on the Humber Estuary to reach the North Sea.  sits on a rising site, its easternmost reaches sitting at 80 metres whilst the higher levels rise to 100 metres above the sea, land rises steadily westwards reaching 250 metres by Denby Dale in the fore-hills of the Pennine range. Like many northern parishes Cawthorne was quite extensive, covering a little over 3,400 acres it would have supported a population of around 1,450 parishioners. All this is in contrast to the tiny rural hamlet which was Cawthorne in Domesday times, held by Ilbert de Lacy it could muster merely 4 ploughs and 4 leagues of woodland to support its 2 households.

The Church

All Saints' church sits at the notional centre of the village but is tucked away behind fronting properties and accessed by a short dead-end lane from Church Street. Sadly for lovers of the medieval the wealthy landowners of Cannon Hall sponsored the almost complete rebuilding of this church in the late 1870s leaving a church which would not be recognisable to the participants in these marriages. Enough original fabric was retained/reused to identify at least the rough dating of the original medieval church. Two arcade piers are tentatively dated by Pevsner to c1200 during the Early English Gothic era whilst lancet windows on the northern side of the northern chapel betray the origins of that piece in the late 13th century. The sturdy western tower complete with pinnacles has also been largely retained and its style of the Perpendicular places it into the late 14th or more likely early 15th centuries. Virtually everything else dates from that extensive rebuild of the late 19th century with a nod to the medieval in the Decorated styling used, in particular, in the chancel's east window. Street parking may be found on the southern side of Church Street and it is merely a short walk to the church. The churchyard is rather compact and the church sits uncomfortably close to the southern edges which are dominated by mature trees making for something of a challenge for the photographer.