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

The Parish

The parish of Wigginton lies in central Yorkshire roughly 4 miles north of the city of York, it forms part of the southern border of the North Riding, here with the Ainsty of York. Wigginton  sits on and mostly east of the B1363 road which links York with Helmsley and consisted, at the time of this transcript, of a single east to west running lane lined with properties and a small extension southwards around the church. Today Wigginton  has expanded with modern developments into a small suburb of the city and merged seamlessly with neighbouring Haxby into a continuous built environment forming an inverted "L" shape and over 1 mile in depth. 18th century Wigginton  was a simple farming community with arable and pastoral methods in equal abundance on soils a mixture of clays and sands. Wigginton  sits on flattish land between the courses of the Ouse and Foss, an area of almost random drainage taking water into either river, both join in York to head to the North Sea arriving through the Humber Estuary. Wigginton  is sited at around 15 metres above the sea with land at that height for a considerable distance. Wigginton  parish covered a little over 2,000 acres so was typically sized for the Vale of York, that acreage supported a population of close to 400 parishioners. In Domesday times Wigginton  was described as "waste" with no recorded population of assets for its landholder the Canons of St Peter, York.

The Church

The church in the village is today dedicated to St Nicholas, that re-dedication was in 2008, but the former church in which these marriages took place was St Mary. Sadly the "ancient structure" described in early gazetteers which stood at the western end of Church Lane was demolished and St Nicholas took its place as the parish church. Completed in 1861 it is a simple church of nave and chancel topped with a lofty bellcote at its western end, all is built in a style derived from the 13th century Early English Gothic. Since completion a church hall has been added to the south & west completed in 1995. The church stands at the junction of Church Lane with Back Lane with the entrance set into the latter. Parking is better on the wider Church Lane. Whilst the churchyard is relatively free from obstacles the presence of the church hall does diminish the favoured southern aspects.