England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Skirlaugh St Augustine

The Parish

The chapelry of Skirlaugh, which lies within Swine parish, lies in the extreme southeast of Yorkshire roughly 7 miles east of the city of Beverley. Skirlaugh is a large village which sits on the A165 road which connects the port of Hull with the seaside resort of Bridlington. Skirlaugh is a crossroads settlement, the B1243 road here forks east from the A165 to Hornsea and most properties lies along each of the two major roads, a modern development extends today's village to the southwest too. Whilst only the chapelry to Swine, the parish, Skirlaugh is very much the larger of the two settlements today. In medieval times Skirlaugh was two separate villages separated by the course of the Lambwath Stream but united today into a single settlement. The area is low-lying with flooding often a problem the farming is here dominated by grazing, largely of cattle, on the water-meadows of the many streams, some drier ground within the chapelry allowed arable farming of mainly cereals too. The Lambwath Stream formerly drained westwards into the River Hull but drainage has been much modified by man to cope with the flooding and it is nowadays diverted by the Holderness Drain to reach the outer Humber Estuary to the east of Hull. Skirlaugh is sited at just 10 metres above the sea, a height which is exceeded rarely by more than a further 10 metres for some considerable distance. Roughly 1,000 acres was set aside from Swine parish to support Skirlaugh and acreage which would have supported a population of around 450 parishioners. In Domesday times only North Skirlaugh is mentioned, the smaller of today's twin settlements, held by Drogo de la Beuvriere it was a modest place offering 5 ploughs and a small meadow.

The Church

St Augustine's church stands roughly a hundred metres into the start of the Hornsea Road, B1243 and on its western side. For a mere chapelry the church is an impressive example of the style of Perpendicular. Despite Pevsner's grumbles about the awkward position of the southern porch  and the height of the western tower it is a fine piece of work and an impressively complete example of a single continuous build. Donated to the village by one of its most notable sons, Walter Skirlaw became firstly Bishop of Lichfield, then of Wells and finally of Durham. Building work is estimated from documentary sources to have begun c1401 and the unity of design makes it obvious that the basic structure was a single build to a predefined plan. Given the size of the chapelry's congregation it is a large church with ashlar the main fabric visible externally. The only changes made since construction come from a minor restoration of 1878 and changes made in the 1980s to make the interior more light and airy. The Hornsea Road is sufficiently broad to allow street parking outside the wrought iron and brick boundary. The church sits within an extensive, almost park-like churchyard which allows its impressive architecture full expression for the photographer.