England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Goxhill St Giles

The Parish

The parish of Goxhill lies in southeastern Yorkshire, within the East Riding, and not too farm from its North Sea coastline. Goxhill is located just under 3 miles southwest of the coastal town of Hornsea and sits in an area devoid of significantly numbered roads, the closest such being 3 miles to its north, the B1244 road which links Hornsea to the A165 (Beverley to Bridlington) road. Goxhill is a tiny place both a deserted medieval village and a closed parish with all lands held by a single landholder who discouraged inward migration. There is no substantial village merely a scatter of farms and cottages across the wider parish. Goxhill is an arable farming parish with most land set to cereals supplemented by beet and oil seed in today's regime. Modern developments did come to the parish, a railway line joining Hornsea to Hull having closed and is nowadays a cycleway and hiking trial, part of the cross-country Trans Pennine Trail. Small brooks and field drains take water from the parish to nearby Hornsea Mere before reaching the North Sea through that town. Goxhill is sited at around 15 metres above the sea in generally flat terrain, westwards the terrain rises briefly above the 20 metre contour but not by much. At just 812 acres Goxhill was one of its county's smallest parishes, that tiny acreage only supporting around 50 parishioners. In Domesday times, whilst still determinedly rural and small, Goxhill was an average rural holding of Drogo de la Beuvriere offering 10 ploughs from 5 households.

The Church

St Giles' church sits together with a farmstead and the humps and bumps of the former deserted medieval village at the northern terminus of a narrow lane, beyond church & farm the lane becomes merely a footpath headed for Seaton. Sadly for enthusiasts of medieval styles St Giles is a product of the 19th century having been built to completion in 1817 in replacement for a demolished predecessor. Details which Pevsner terms "Gothick" hark back to the earlier styles, the layout is traditional with nave and chancel together with a western tower, the chancel bears an apse, a very early feature. The western tower, complete with pyramidal slate roof has what Pevsner terms an "Italianate" feel. Despite the recent completion there has been time for restoration, a typical Victorian restoration of 1840 adding yet more faux-medieval detailing. The lane terminates amongst the out-building of the farmstead allowing easy parking across the broad expanse of grass fronting the churchyard, a small wooden gate grants entry into a churchyard with few obstacles for the photographer.