England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Healaugh St John

The Parish

The parish of Healaugh lies in southern Yorkshire roughly 3 miles north of the brewing town of Tadcaster. Healaugh sits within an area devoid of significant numbered roads, the closest such road being the A64 at Tadcaster which links that town with York. Healaugh is an estate village dominated by Healaugh Hall which occupied the grounds of the former priory of the "black canons". The village has a single main street running for a quarter mile from northwest to southeast with the church at its northern head. The area lies within the influence of the nearby River Wharfe with rich loamy soils ideal for growing the barley that nearby Tadcaster would turn into beer. A series of small streams, notably the Dam Dike funnel water southwards into the Wharfe which trends southeast meeting the Yorkshire Ouse before running into the North Sea through the Humber Estuary. Healaugh is sited at around 30 metres above the sea in gentle terrain where a few spots to its north barely touch 40 metres. Healaugh parish was larger than many in more southern England covering roughly 2,800 acres and supporting a population of around 250 parishioners. Domesday Healaugh was little different from today's small farming village, held by one Geoffrey Alselin it offered 9 ploughs together with a small area of woodland.

The Church

St John's church, the dedication was originally to St Helen but was changed, sits at the northern edge of the small village accessed by footpath from Wighill Lane. The church has its origins in the 12th century with later additions in the 15th & 19th centuries. The basic structure of nave and chancel together with a northern chapel and aisle are built in a bright coloured magnesian limestone shining in the landscape. The 12th century Norman Romanesque is well displayed in the 3-bay nave with pointed windows and a doorway with roll-moulding. The chancel arch of similar vintage has characteristic double-chamfers. A single lancet window in the northern aisle is perhaps original or a 13th century addition. Little changed for St John during the great church-building era of the 14th & 15th centuries with the chapel acquiring a Perpendicular styled window. The western tower has stages of two eras, the basal stage being contemporary with the main body whilst the top stage and cap relate to the typical Victorian work of the 19th century which also restored the remainder of the church. Parking should be sought at the bend in Wighill Lane by the war memorial from where a footpath leads to an open and uncluttered churchyard with no obstacles for the photographer.