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

The Parish

The parish of Featherstone lies in southern central Yorkshire within the county's industrial belt of the West Riding. Featherstone is located roughly 2 miles west of the town of Pontefract and stands on and mostly north of the A645 road which links Pontefract with Wakefield. Today Featherstone consists of 4 main settlements, the old village of North Featherstone is a crossroads village sitting about 1 1/2 miles north of the A645 and is the original village holding the parish church; further north is Whitwood formerly a small village now subsumed by Castleford; to the west sits Aikton, another small crossroads village; on the A645 is the modern village of Featherstone, a former mining settlement which grew up in the late 19th century to serve the coal mines; finally there is Purston Jaglin, an extension of the pit village south of the Pontefract/Wakefield railway. The whole area has undergone profound change from simple agrarian village centred on what is now North Featherstone, through massive industrialisation following the sinking of coal mines in 1868 resulting in a landscape scarred by mountainous coal tips through to today where the pits are gone, the poverty & hardship which resulted has ameliorated and the landscape recovering back to nature. Besides the coal related activity the parish also held industries for the manufacture of glass and potteries. Modern developments have come in abundance, first to arrive was the Aire & Calder navigation which skirts the northern edge of the parish, a plethora of railway lines followed with those linking Pontefract with Wakefield & Castleford remaining and granting the 19th century Featherstone a station, finally the modern M62 cross Pennine motorway passes through the north of the parish. Featherstone is drained by the combined rivers Calder & Aire which continue eastwards as the Aire heading east to Goole where the Ouse is met and both flow into the Humber Estuary and thus to the North Sea. Featherstone is sited at around 60 metres above the sea, the pit village being 10 metres lower and Whitwood 40 metres lower, the highest ground around lies to the southwest at nearby Sharlston where a spot height records 87 metres in relatively gentle terrain. Covering 4,000 acres Featherstone was a typical northern parish which would have supported a population of close to 1,000 parishioners. In Domesday times Featherstone was a holding of Ilbert de Lacy offering 10 ploughs and some woodland, Ilbert also held Purston Jaglin with a further 10 ploughs and more woodland.

The Church

All Saints' church sits within North Featherstone on the northern side of Ackton Lane and a few yards west of the main crossroads marking the notional centre of the village. Whilst the church is medieval it is one which received extensive restoration during the Victorian period. The basic structure of the church is 15th century late-Perpendicular in style with the 2-bay nave, the 3-bay southern aisle and chancel and western tower are all of this period. These areas of the church carry the fashionable battlementation of their build era. Slightly later but still 15th century is the southern porch which bears a stone roof raised upon massive transverse arches. The Victorian restoration fell in the 1880s and was extensive. sadly in 1999 the church suffered damage from an internal fire but the fixtures and fittings have been renewed following that disaster. Following the growth of the coal mines and incoming workers the modern village of Featherstone acquired a second church that of St Thomas which supplements All Saints. Church Lane, a few yards east of All Saints, provides safe on-street parking, Ackton Lane being a B-road is busy with traffic. The church sits well back from the road in an extensive churchyard where all of the favoured southern aspects are available for the photographer.