England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Elland St Mary

The Parish

The parish of Elland lies in southwestern Yorkshire not too far from its border with neighbouring Lancashire. Elland was created as a separate parish from the vast West Yorkshire parish of Halifax in 1724 prior to that it was a chapelry within that parish. Elland is located roughly midway between its mother parish, the industrial town of Halifax, and Huddersfield being 3 miles southeast of the former and about the same northwest of the latter. Elland sits astride the busy A629 road which connects the two and which passes through the town on something of a bypass to the east of the main centre. Elland was formerly a market town but had lost those privileges prior to the industrial revolution when the whole area developed through the manufacture of cloth. The River Calder, which sits below Elland, powered the looms of the cloth mills and the population expanded as the need for labour grew. Today Elland is something of a postindustrial town, the dirty, heavy industries having decayed from foreign imports and light industry now dominates the town. Besides the cloth industry, coal mines were present in the area and quarrying for the local gritstone diversified the economy. Today Elland spreads for some 2 miles along the southern banks of the River Calder, modern communications flow through the parish; the Calder & Hebble Navigation, the former rail line now has no stop at Elland but the modern M62 trans-Pennine Motorway cuts through the southern portion of the parish. The Calder drains the parish eastwards, joining the Aire at Castleford before reaching the North Sea through the Humber Estuary. Elland is sited at around 90 metres above the sea but modern estates to the west rise to over 130 metres, the landscape is deeply incised and local heights are at over 250 metres within a mile or two of the town, the land rising to the Pennine Hills to the west. Elland's share of the acreage of Halifax parish amounted to around 3,400 acres making its rather small for a Pennine parish but its population grew steadily to reach around 6,500 parishioners by the end of this transcript period. In Domesday times Elland was a relatively small place, held by one Ilbert of Lacy it could offer a pair of ploughs and small meadows and woodlands.

The Church

St Mary's church sits at the heart of Elland overlooking the Calder Valley and set on the eastern side of Northgate at the junction with Church Street. The church would appear to date almost entirely from the Perpendicular period and probably from the 15th century. This date almost certainly reflects a major rebuild at this time as some reused stones from the chancel arch have been dated as early as 1170 indicating a much older prior building. The cloth business would have enabled the local citizens to refresh and rebuild their church to match the newfound prosperity of that period. The church follows the standard design of that period with nave, chancel and western tower enhanced by aisles to accommodate the growing population. The church is surrounded by low local stone walls, hedge-topped facing Northgate. The site is rather compact with little space around the building and a plethora of trees which somewhat restrict the photographic angles available.