England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Whiston St Mary Magdalene

The Parish

The parish of Whiston lies in the extreme south of Yorkshire not too far from its borders with both neighbouring Derbyshire and also Nottinghamshire. Whiston is located around 3 miles south of the industrial town of Rotherham. Whiston, whilst once a discrete village, has nowadays almost been absorbed into Rotherham and the wider metropolitan South Yorkshire conurbation. Whiston sits just south of the A631 road which connects Sheffield with Maltby and just east of the A618 road connecting Rotherham with Clowne, the modern M1 motorway runs through the south of the parish just west of its junction with the M18, the whole area being a maze of roads and modern communications. In contrast Whiston would have been largely an arable agricultural village at the time of this transcript. Small tributaries of the River Rother drain westwards to join that river which, following its merger with the Don eventually reaches the North Sea through the Humber Estuary. Whiston is sited at around 50 metres above the sea on a sloping area of land that rises to the north to around 100 metres. Whiston parish was of a size fairly typical of lowland Yorkshire parishes, it covered almost 2,500 acres and would have supported a population of around 1,000 parishioners. In Domesday times Whiston was shared between Count Robert of Mortain, who held the larger share, and William of Warenne. The parish could offer 10 ploughs and some woodland.

The Church

St Mary Magdalene's church sits in the southern portion of Whiston and is accessed along School Hill. The church is an amalgam of early and late, the western tower and southern wall of the nave are Norman in style and probably carry a 12th century date, the remainder of the church was rebuilt in 1883. The nave and chancel are curiously long for the tower giving a rather barn-like appearance. The whole building utilises the local reddish sandstone to good effect. The rebuilding of the church merits little comment from Pevsner who dismisses the building within a handful of lines. School Hill terminates at the lych gate of the churchyard, entry is through this gate to a churchyard crossed by three tarred pathways. The eastern end is rather hemmed in by trees and they do restrict photography from that area.