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

The Parish

The parish of Marfleet lies in the extreme south of Yorkshire forming a stretch of the county's coastline with the outer Humber Estuary. Marfleet is located about 3 miles east of the port of Hull and stands immediately north of the A1103 road which links Hull with Withernsea. Marfleet is much changed settlement, early maps show a rather dispersed settlement formed around a prominent fork where sat its railway station, to the east sat a further cluster around the parish church. Today Marfleet has been engulfed by Hull becoming merely one of its easternmost suburbs and where once were open fields there is now a rash of light industry, retail and housing development cut through by the A1103. At the time of this transcript Marfleet was a farming community with a mixture of pastures and arable fields sat upon the rich clay soils bordering the Humber Estuary, from the foreshore there would have been shell-fishing and wildfowling. Modern developments abound, the railway line has been downgraded to freight and Marfleet's station no longer operates, the A1103 is now a modern fast dual-carriageway highway and the foreshore is now covered in the King George Dock and its associated infrastructure. Marfleet is drained mostly by the Old Fleet which runs down the eastern side of the parish into the Humber Estuary. Marfleet is sited entirely below the 5 metre contour with parts of the parish at sea level, land is flat for some distance. Marfleet parish was one of the smaller in this area, covering just under 1,200 acres it would have supported a population of close to 150 parishioners. The Domesday entry for Marfleet is a little confusing, there being just 5 households yet 10 ploughs recorded, this is undoubtedly reference to a wider area than the manor of Marfleet, all was held by Drogo de la Beuvriere.

The Church

St Giles' church stands close to the A1103 in Church Lane, on early maps it would have looked out upon the "Great Field" to the east of the village nowadays it is overlooked by dock buildings and modern housing yet still surprisingly rural in its immediate surroundings. Today's church is not the venue for these marriage, indeed it is the 3rd manifestation on the site. The original medieval church was demolished in the late 18th century and replaced in 1793 by a small brick building that would have seen the majority of these marriages. Today's church is a Victorian replacement completed in 1884, a simple church of nave and chancel with a western portal topped with a bellcote. Church Lane heads east from Marfleet Lane almost opposite the school, just before the road would have reached the A1103 but for its fencing a short northeastern spur leads to ample parking outside the churchyard. Unfortunately due to close tree cover all of the favoured southern viewpoints are compromised leaving only the views from the west and north for the photographer.