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

The Parish

The parish of Etton lies in southeastern Yorkshire, within the East Riding. Etton is located about 4 miles northwest of the market town of Beverley and sits on the Yorkshire Wolds. Etton sits a half mile west of the B1248 road which connects Beverley through to Malton and crosses the Wolds from south to north. Etton is something of a long strip of a village, from the eastern junction holding the church the village runs westwards for almost a half mile either side of Main Street. At the time of this transcript, with poor and chalky soils, the parish's economy would have been dominated by sheep grazing the turf of the Wolds, with modern machinery & fertilisers the landscape is nowadays largely arable. Modern developments temporarily came to Etton, a branch railway line from Beverley to Market Weighton cut through to the south but has been removed and is now a cycle-way. Etton sits close to the eastern edges of the Wolds and a few ephemeral becks drain eastwards to join the River Hull on lower ground, here it turns south to reach the outer Humber estuary through the port of Hull. Etton is sited at around 30 metres above the sea and land continues to rise westwards eventually climbing above 130 metres in a steady dip slope. Etton parish was fairly typically sized for the Wolds, covering close to 3,700 acres it would have supported a population of just over 400 parishioners. In Domesday times Etton was shared 3 ways, the largest portion in the hands of the Archbishop of York, a modest place offering 10 ploughs and a small wood.

The Church

St Mary's church sits at the eastern end of the village where Main Street meets Chantry Lane but set back behind the school and other fronting properties. St Mary is an extensively restored and modified church, a fact which leads Pevsner to describe its exterior, unkindly, as "decidedly unattractive". However, fragments of its early origins remain one closely examined. The basal stage of the tower together with its arch are Norman Romanesque and 12th century in origin whilst the piers of the southern aisle reveal an Early English Gothic style of the early 13th century. It is, however, to the Victorian period that we owe much of the church. The chancel dates from a rebuild of the 1840 whilst in the 1860s the church saw a major overhaul. The pseudo-Norman south doorway is of this date as are the upper stages of the tower and the southern aisle also saw major work. The vestry was added in 1891 and as recently as 1927 saw the rebuild of the southern porch leaving quite a modern church after all that work. A roughly surfaced lane leaves Main Street opposite the mere, parking is best sought on Main Street, the lane turns sharp right to access a churchuard which is devoid of photographic obstacles.