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

The Parish

The township of Lockton, its mother parish being Middleton, lies in the northeast of Yorkshire roughly 5 miles northeast of the market town of Pickering. Lockton sits deep within the North York Moors National Park just west of the A169 road which connects Pickering with Whitby. Lockton is a small, linear hilltop village with most properties lining two east to west running lanes. Much of the area of the township is rough moorland grazing with early gazetteers estimating only around 27% of the acreage as productive for agriculture. In addition to upland farming there was some exploitation of the local stone mainly for the burning of lime. Today Lockton is more of a tourist destination with many local hikes on the moors and with f the local streams, the well-placed Youth Hostel doing a brisk business. Modern developments have come but passed into heritage, the railway line passing through the area now a heritage steam line, the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. Lockton is drained by a tributary of Pickering Beck which is soon joined, after passing through Pickering the beck is renamed as the Costa Beck immediately before joining the River Derwent, the Derwent heads westwards to meet with the Yorkshire Dales rivers before passing into the North Sea through the Humber Estuary. Lockton is sited at around 160 metres above the sea above the deeply incised features of the dales to its west, they were formed when a peri-glacial lake burst through the Moors deepening the pre-existing channels, to the north of Lockton the moors rise to a local high point at 289 metres. The township was allocated roughly 4,000 acres of Middleton parish and supported a population of close to 350 parishioners, the few marriages recorded probably reflect marriages preferred at the mother parish rather than this chapel-at-ease. Lockton is mentioned in Domesday Book but is described as "waste" with no assets for King William its landholder.

The Church

St Giles' church sits immediately west of the Youth Hostel with a semi-circular strip of land north of the main village street. The church has its origins in the Early English Gothic era of the 13th century with both nave and chancel showing typical features of that style, a lancet window graces the southern face of the chancel, in particular. To the west lies a rather blocky tower in the later Perpendicular style of the 15th century, the unusual saddleback roof is constructed as an east to west ribbed tunnel vault. The medieval fabric was refreshed in Georgian times when the porch and southern doorway were completed. Further work was added in the 20th century to complete today's church. The quiet shady street is of adequate width for careful on-street parking outside the churchyard. The roadside shady trees, however, act against the photographer removing the favoured southern aspects, all other angles are readily available.