England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Walkington All Hallows

The Parish

The parish of Walkington lies in southeastern Yorkshire within the East Riding and roughly 4 miles southwest of the town of Beverley. Walkington sits on the B1230 road which links Beverley with Howden. Walkington is a large village which sits either side of the B1230 and roughly 250 metres away from it to both north and south, the village sits on the lower slopes of the Yorkshire Wolds rising steadily from east to west along the B1230. Walkington sits within rich alluvial soils excellent for arable farming which dominated the local economy, today the main crops are cereals, oil seed and beet but at the time of this transcript a more rotational 4-year cycle would have been in place, modern machinery has also resulted in the removal of many hedgerows that would have criss-crossed the parish. Modern developments have come to the parish, the Beverley bypass (the A1079) has been upgraded in part to dual-carriageway highway taking traffic away from the narrow streets of that town. Walkington is drained eastwards by a small stream that passes south of Beverley to meet the man-influenced and canalised River Hull which takes water southwards through eastern Hull to the outer Humber Estuary and thus to the North Sea. Walkington rises from 50 to 70 metres above the sea along its length, land continues rising westwards, as the Wolds develop, reaching a spot height of 161 metres on the B1230 at High Hunsley the highest ground around. Walkington parish covered a little under 3,600 acres, large but not atypical for this area, that acreage would have supported a population of close to 650 parishioners. Domesday entries for Walkington are somewhat confusing, there are two entries one of which (that held by the Bishop of Durham) appears to refer to a regional area whereas that belonging to the Archbishop of York appears to relate more sensibly to the specific manor, that entry has assets of 7 ploughs whereas the larger entry's assets almost exceed the number of households.

The Church

All Hallows' church sits south of the B1230 on the southern edge of the village accessed southwards by Kirk Lane and east by Little Weighton Road. This is a church where much of the medieval has been replaced by Georgian & Victorian rebuilding and restoration, the whole of the northern side of the church being rebuilt in 1819 in brick rather than the stonework of the original construction. Internally Pevsner manages to locate the arches to the transepts as dating from c1200 indicating that the layout of the church dates from the Early English Gothic era if not earlier. Most of the window tracery is indicative of a rebuild in the Perpendicular era and many of those windows were reused in the Georgian rebuilding, the exception to this is the chancel's great east window of 5-lights in the Decorated style.  The principal element remaining from the Perpendicular era is the ashlar faced western tower complete with corner pinnacles. In addition to the Georgian rebuild the church was restored in 1899, the stone & timber porch was added in 1921 soon followed by the vestry to complete today's layout. To the south of the churchyard the church has a small car park allowing a relaxed visit, the churchyard is a little disappointing for the photographer as the church sits close to southern trees with thicker cover still to the east, other aspects are available but are less satisfactory especially on a sunny day.