England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Wetwang St Nicholas

The Parish

The parish of Wetwang lies in southeastern Yorkshire within the heart of the Wolds and roughly 5 miles west of the market town of Great Driffield. Wetwang sits on the A166 road which links Great Driffield through to York and runs for roughly a half mile along that road with twin parallel lanes to north and south enclosing most of the village's properties. Wetwang is a mid-sized village at the heart of an extensive and largely arable parish, early gazetteers estimate that as much as 65% of the parish acreage was arable but today that percentage is much higher, the variation comes from the characteristic dry valleys carved into the hills of The Wolds which generally support pastures for both sheep and cattle. The porous chalk prevents any surface drainage until the infant River Hull emerges at Little Driffield to begin its journey southwards to eventually meet the outer Humber Estuary to the east of Hull, itself. Wetwang is sited at around 70 metres above the sea whilst local hill top reach a general level of around 150 metres whilst one just west of nearby Fridaythorpe touches 175 metres. Wetwang parish was extensive covering close to 3,900 acres within which it would have supported a population of around 700 parishioners with almost 80% of the residents in the village of Wetwang. In Domesday times Wetwang had suffered from the impact of William the Conqueror's response to the rebellion of northern England and was described simply as "waste", held by the Archbishop of York it did have recognised potential for 7 ploughs once recovered.

The Church

St Nicholas' church sits almost centrally along the width of the village at the junction of the A166, Main Street, with Church Lane, the church is on the southern side of the Main Street. The earliest parts of the church date from Norman times with 12th century Romanesque styling evident in several features retained within the nave, two southern windows are Norman whilst the arcade shows the style more readily in its retained piers. That arcade was widened by addition of a third bay which together with the western tower were added in the 13th century in the Early English Gothic style. The tower has lancet windows as indications with the exception of the top parapet and battlements which were Perpendicular adornments. From the late 13th century comes too the northern transept complete with geometrical tracery, there is evidence of an opposite southern transept but that no longer exists. Restoration came late to St Nicholas with the first phase of 1896 directed at the tower and northern wall. A more thorough affair followed soon after in 1901-2 which saw the rebuilding of the chancel in contrast to the remainder of the church. Parking bays run steadily along the northern side of Main Street allowing simple parking. Entry is through an neat lychgate and up a short flight of shallow steps, the churchyard is full of trees to the north of the church but the photographer should be thankful that the southern aspects are free.