England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Middleton on Leven St Cuthbert

The Parish

The chapelry of Middleton on Leven, the mother parish being Rudby, lies in the extreme north of Yorkshire, not too far from the border with neighbouring County Durham. Middleton on Leven is located roughly 9 miles south of the Durham industrial town of Stockton on Tees and sits just over a mile east of the busy A19 dual-carriageway that connects Teesside with the Great North Road to London. Middleton on Leven is a tiny place, little more than a hamlet, with a straggle of properties lying along a narrow dead-end lane heading to the River Leven that acts as qualifier to distinguish this Middleton from all others. The local economy is dominated by arable farming, this far north in the country there are also pastures too as cereals do not flourish as well as in southern counties. The River Leven, sunk into an incised valley, drains the parish northwards to quickly join the Tees which then passes through industrial landscapes to reach the North Sea. Middleton on Leven is sited at around 50 metres above the sea in fairly gentle terrain where heights of little more than 70 metres mark local high points, The chapelry's acreage of 1,100 or so, cut from that of Rudby, is small for a northern parish and supported a population of just slightly more than 100 parishioners. In Domesday times Middleton on Leven was almost at the northern limit of recorded entries but was listed as a holding of Count Robert of Mortain with assets of just 6 ploughs.

The Church

St Cuthbert's church sits to the north of the hamlet's only dead-end lane and is tucked away behind fronting properties. A small and simple church dating from a rare period for church-building. Whilst there may well have been a medieval church here today's building dates from 1789 so only the later marriages in this transcript would have taken place within this structure. The building has both nave & chancel in one and is topped off by a "chimney-stack-like" micro-tower at the western end. The building was clearly of little architectural interest for Pevsner as his account is a mere 3 lines of text. About 300 yards into the narrow lane a rough track leads north to the site, parking can be found around this junction, The churchyard is a small hedged enclosure with no particular obstacles for the photographer.