England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Oulton cum Woodlesford St John

The Parish

The parish of Oulton cum Woodlesford, created in 1827 from the wider parish of Rothwell, lies in the West riding of Yorkshire about 5 miles east of the city of Leeds. Oulton, the principal village, lies on the A639 road which connects Leeds with Castleford, the subsidiary village of Woodlesford lies a mile north of Oulton. Whereas these would have once been discrete villages they, today, form a wider part of the Metropolitan area of the Leeds area, modern developments passing through the parish include the Aire & Calder Navigation and rail lines from Leeds eastbound and the modern M1 motorway passes a couple of miles to Oulton's west. At the time of this transcript Oulton was a largely farming community dominated by the lands of Oulton Hall, home of the prominent Blayds family, and farming would have been supplemented by some quarrying of the local stone for building. Today Oulton Hall is a plush hotel, spa & golf resort. Oulton sits in the broad valley of the River Aire and a small tributary drains the short distance to join it, thence reaching the North Sea through the Humber Estuary. Oulton is sited at around 30 metres above the sea in a gently undulating floodplain of the Aire, local heights rise to 70 metres to Oulton's south. Oulton cum Woodlesford parish was cut from Rothwell and comprised around 1,250 acres, the population grew rapidly to around 1,800 parishioners but most marriages would have been recorded in the registers of Rothwell. There is no specific mention of Oulton cum Woodlesford in Domesday Book it being recorded within Rothwell's entry.

The Church

St John's church sits in the grounds of Oulton Hall estate a few yards from the grand entrance gates off the A654, which runs from the A639 into Rothwell. The church was built between 1827 & 1829, at the expense of the Blayds family, from plans created by the prominent architect Thomas Rickman. For once Pevsner is full of praise for such a recent creation, describing the church as "one of Rickman's most successful ecclesiastical buildings". Making use of Early English Gothic style lancet windows and with a dominating western tower capped by a needle thin steeple albeit Pevsner notes the pinnacles as "clumsy". The church is large as befits a growing community with nave & aisles with chancel and a polygonal apse. A wide leafy tarred driveway leads into the hotel complex and shortly after a small pull-in enables parking for the track leading through to the church. Sheltered by enclosing trees from the surrounding golf course the church has a churchyard which is not quite sufficiently wide to adequately capture that needle spire but is otherwise devoid of obstacles to photography.