England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Patrington St Patrick

The Parish

The parish of Patrington lies in the extreme southeast of Yorkshire not too far from its coastline with the Humber Estuary. Patrington is located on the Spurn Peninsula about 15 miles east of the great sea port of Hull and sits on the A1033 road which connects Hull with the North Sea coast at Withernsea. Patrington, today, is just a large village but it was formerly a much more important place. A market town from 1223 to 1870 and a significant port in its own right from the Middle Ages through to 1860. Patrington's demise was partly due to silting of its Haven and the development of the Hull & Holderness railway (ironically now largely disappeared and a cycle route in part) which took away the trade. Today Patrington is a a large and peaceful village grouped around its impressive church at the junction of the A1033 & B1445 roads. Other than port activities and market town function Patrington would have primarily earned its living from arable farming, roughly 2 to 1 with pastures on the rich alluvial soils deposited by the ice ages & river deposition. Most of the drainage in this low-lying area is impacted by human changes and drains take water through to the Humber by the Winestead Drain and also through the North Sea outlet at Withernsea. Patrington is sited at just 15 metres above the sea yet sits on an elevation above the general land level which is at or even below sea level for many miles. Yorkshire parishes, even in Holderness, are quite large and Patrington was no exception, it covered around 3,500 acres and would have supported a population of around 1,400 parishioners. In Domesday times Patrington was held by the Archbishop of York and was a prosperous farming area offering 25 ploughs as well as a small meadow.

The Church

St Patrick's church sits at the heart of the village enclosed within a large oblong churchyard sitting to the south of the B1445. St Patrick is one of the few churches that moved Pevsner into rapture. He describes it "sheer architectural beauty" and "calm perfection", praise indeed from the often churlish man. The church is immense befitting a large important market town rather than the humble surroundings of today's village. At 150 feet in length and with its outstanding tall spire (180 foot in height and "one of the finest in the country" says Pevsner), it is a landmark in these flat Holderness lands for many a mile. Pevsner finds some early features indicating a building here of 12th century but the present church largely represents a continuous build commencing c1300 and running thorough to a completion c1400. As is usual restoration followed in the 19th century between 1885 and 1902 to reach the present building. Access is from the B1445 (High Street) where a substantial car park permits access to the large churchyard, once inside most angles are unaffected by infringing trees except the extreme eastern end, the churchyard is also sufficiently large as to permit recording the whole landscape panorama of this fine building.