England
& Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index |
The ParishThe parish of Rothwell lies in southwestern Yorkshire, within the West Riding, and roughly 5 miles southeast of the metropolis that is modern day Leeds. Rothwell was a mining town, grown from a village, which sits a mile west of the A639 road, this road runs from Leeds to Castleford & Pontefract, there are numerous other A-class roads in the area which has become intensively urbanised. Rothwell in medieval times was a small to medium sized farming village, a mixed farming regime present; early maps show the village concentrated along the lanes parallel with the Oulton Beck on which it sits and running eastwards from the church & castle. The growth of Rothwell and other towns in this area came through the exploitation of coal, mines extensively covered the area and inbound migration expanded the settlement considerably. In addition to the coal mines there were quarries for the local stone for building as well as manufacturies for rope & twine, there was also that Yorkshire staple, a woollen mill. Today the mines have closed but Rothwell remains as a substantial town comparable in dimensions with a mid-sized market town, which it never was. Modern developments abound, railway lines criss-cross the area whilst the modern M1 & M62 both carve their way through the wider parish. Rothwell sits on a peninsula of higher land between the Aire and Calder rivers, they meet further east before continuing onwards together with all of the other major Yorkshire rivers through to the North Sea arriving through the Humber Estuary. Rothwell has a valley-side site giving a range of altitudes from around 40 metres by the Oulton Beck up to over 70 metres in Rothwell Haigh, land continues rising westwards to over 100 metres within a few miles in fairly gentle terrain. Rothwell parish was rather extensive, carved in post-Conquest times from the immense Morley parish, it covered just over 8,600 acres and would have supported a population that exploded to over 7,400 parishioners, marriage volumes in the early part of the registers are consistent with a population of less than half of that figure. Back in Domesday times Rothwell was a mere rural settlement, held by Ilbert de Lacy, it could offer just 10 ploughs, meadows & woodland but did already have a mill. |
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Register No | Covering Dates | Deposited With | Register Style | Quality Standard | Comments |
1 |
15th April 1754 - 2nd April 1783 |
West Yorkshire Archive Service - Leeds - Reference -
RDP91/3/1 |
Standard preprinted and self-numbered Marriage register
with 4 entries per page |
Grade 3 Register - there are sufficient quality issues
with this register to indicate that some misreads will occur
albeit few in number |
Intermittent fading may result in one or two misreads |
2 | 13th April 1783 - 23rd November 1801 | West Yorkshire Archive Service - Leeds - Reference - RDP91/3/2 | Standard preprinted and self-numbered combined Banns & Marriage register with 4 entries per page | Grade 3 Register - there are sufficient quality issues with this
register to indicate that some misreads will occur albeit few in
number |
Intermittent fading may result in some misreads |
3 | 25th November 1801 - 31st December 1812 | West Yorkshire Archive Service - Leeds - Reference - RDP91/3/3 | Standard preprinted and self-numbered combined Banns & Marriage register with 4 entries per page | Grade 2 Register - not a perfect read but with a low likelihood of
misreads |
None |
4 | 13th January 1813- 3rd March 1822 | West Yorkshire Archive Service - Leeds - Reference - RDP91/3/4 | Standard Rose style preprinted and prenumbered Marriage register | Grade 2 Register - not a perfect read but with a low likelihood of
misreads |
None |
5 | 4th March 1822 - 28th July 1833 | West Yorkshire Archive Service - Leeds - Reference - RDP91/3/5 | Nonstandard Rose style preprinted Marriage register, it is nonstandard by not being pre-stamped with its numbering that being left to the clerk to complete | Grade 3 Register - there are sufficient quality issues with this
register to indicate that some misreads will occur albeit few in
number |
Patches of very poor handwriting plague this register making for a
likelihood of a few misreads |
6 | 4th August 1833 -28th June 1837 | West Yorkshire Archive Service - Leeds - Reference - RDP91/3/6 | Nonstandard Rose style preprinted Marriage register, it is nonstandard by not being pre-stamped with its numbering that being left to the clerk to complete | Grade 3 Register - there are sufficient quality issues with this
register to indicate that some misreads will occur albeit few in
number |
Fading of this register is marked in places and may well result in
a few misreads |
Beeston
St Mary
Holbeck St Matthew Leeds St Peter |
Hunslet
St Mary
Leeds St Peter |
Whitkirk
St Mary
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Batley
All Saints
East Ardsley St Michael |
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East
Ardsley St Michael
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Methlley
St Oswald
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1755 1760 1765 1770 1775 1780 1785 1790 1795 1800 1805 1810 1815 1820 1825 1830 1835
Corrections to Tinstaafl Transcripts