England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Nunkeeling St Mary Magdalene & St Helena

The Parish

The parish of Nunkeeling lies in southeastern Yorkshire within the East Riding and sitting roughly 4 miles northwest of the coastal town of Hornsea. Nunkeeling sits a little under 2 miles east of the A165 road which connects Beverley with Bridlington. Whilst the parish name is Nunkeeling there is no village as such merely farms and cottages spread over fertile farmland, the only centre of population sits to the east at Bewholme, a small crossroads village at a meeting of narrow lanes. Nunkeeling was once the site of a priory of Benedictine nuns whose serving staff would have managed a considerable estate. Of course all this changed with Henry VIII's dissolution which saw the priory reduced to ruins, the site is at Church Farm. The local landscape is flat and fertile with vast arable fields growing mainly cereals today, at the time of this transcript it would have had a more traditional rotation of crops including fallow and pasture years. Nunkeeling is drained northwards by a small beck which takes a westerly turn to meet the River Hull and thus return back southwards to pass through Hull into the outer Humber Estuary. Nunkeeling is sited at around 20 metres above the sea with nowhere exceeding the 30 metre contour within many miles. Nunkeeling parish was typically sized for the area covering around 2,200 acres and would have supported a population of close to 300 parishioners most of whom would have lived in Bewholme. Indeed at Domesday times it was only Bewholme which was recorded as a holding of Drogo de la Beuvriere offering a single plough backed by meadows & woodland.

The Church

St Mary's church began life as the parish church adjoining the priory of the nunnery it was built in a mixture of cobble, ashlar & brick. In 1810 the church was rebuilt in brick but has since been left to go to ruin. Traces of the medieval remain in the form of Early English Gothic columns whilst most remaining fabric is from the 1810 rebuild. The roof and end gables were removed in 1940 when it became ruinous, it is still maintained by the local council and can be visited. From Bewho,e heading westwards take the right hand fork in the lanes to reach Church Farm where a verge makes for convenient parking. The ruins can be visited without entering the farm's grounds and have no obstacles for the photographer.