England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Thornton in Craven St Mary

The Parish

The parish of Thornton in Craven, the suffix required to distinguish from the many Thorntons in the county, lies in the west of Yorkshire forming a stretch of the county's border with neighbouring Lancashire. Thornton in Craven is located roughly 6 miles west of the town of Skipton and sits on the A56 road which connects Skipton with Burnley. Thornton in Craven is a largely linear village which has most properties either lining the A56 and side lanes or along the B6252 headed toward Barnoldswick. Thornton in Craven is a much diminished place, it was granted a market by King Edward I but competition from Skipton and the towns of Lancashire eroded that status and Thornton in Craven lapsed to become merely a village. Nowadays it is indeed not the largest settlement within the parish that honour falling to Earby about 2 miles to the south which has grown from a small riverside village way up its valley sides as a consequence of industrialisation for cotton mills. Thornton in Craven is primarily an upland parish with early gazetteers estimating that almost 90% of its acreage was set to pastures, richer with cattle in the valleys whilst upland pastures held largely sheep. The extractive industries were also important in the parish with the local limestone quarried for both building stone and for lime burning. Thornton in Craven is nowadays also a way-station along Britain's first National Trail, The Pennine Way on its long journey from Derbyshire into Scotland, Thornton in Craven provides welcome overnight stays for the weary hiker. Other visitors to the area come for the excellent fishing with trout a speciality. Modern developments have come and some stayed, the Leeds to Liverpool Canal passes through the northern portion of the parish whilst formerly a railway line skirted the village to its south en route from Skipton to Burnley, yhr latter now closed. Thornton in Craven is drained eastwards by Earby Beck which joins the major Dales river of the Aire at Skipton, the Aire meets with all of Yorkshire's other Dales rivers in the Vale of York before reaching the North Sea through the Humber Estuary. Thornton in Craven is sited at 160 metres above the sea with Earby some 30 metres lower, the Pennine range is split by the Aire Gap but to the southeast hills still reach 388 metres on Pinhaw Beacon and 363 metres on Bleara Moor. Thornton in Craven parish was extensive, as upland parishes normally are, covering a little over 5.300 acres which would have supported a population of around 2,400 parishioners. Whilst Thornton in Craven is mentioned in Domesday Book as a shared holding of William of Percy & Roger of Poitou it was described as "waste", a term used to describe undeveloped land with no assets recorded.

The Church

St Mary's church sits southwest of the main village on the northern side of the B6252, here named Church Road. St Mary is a church dating from the late medieval period, entirely Perpendicular in style and with no discernible fabric earlier than the middle of the 15th century. The main body, a low nave and chancel, carries an inscription above the east window which implies that dating and there is nothing architecturally to contradict that. Most of the windows show rather plain heads with straight tops and plain arched lights, elaborate decoration not a priority in these tough climatic conditions. The western tower completed with battlements is even late, the inscription here being 1510, again consistent with its architecture. The usual Victorian restoration undoubtedly happened with that east window showing 19th century features but the date and extent is not recorded by Pevsner so clearly was not a major exercise. Visiting the church is made simple by a lengthy lay-by alongside the southern side of the churchyard with room for many cars to park. A few trees line the roadside but do not cause undue complications for the photographer.