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

The Parish

The chapelry of Denton, its mother parish being Gainford, lies in the extreme south of County Durham, Gainford forms a part of the county's border with neighbouring Yorkshire, here formed by the River Tees. Denton is located roughly 5 miles northwest of the industrial town of Darlington and sits a quarter mile north of the B6279 road which connects Darlington with Staindrop. Denton was a closed chapelry with all land held by a single landholder, the small village that is barely more than a hamlet is the consequence of discouraged inbound migration. Signs of greater occupancy are a mile to the east where the lost village of Walworth shows the traces of what had once been a substantial settlement. Two principal strands were evident in the local economy, pastoral farming covered most of the acreage whilst the local limestone made for good quality building stone and was extensively extracted. Two small streams, the Cocker & Summerhouse Becks drain the chapelry southwards the short distance to the Tees where water than head eastwards through Darlington to reach the sea through the Tees Estuary. Denton is sited at around 80 metres above the sea, to the north lies a small escarpment culminating in a spot height of 201 metres east of nearby Bolam, the escarpment forms the northern skyline. Just 956 acres of Gainford parish were assigned to Denton which would have supported a population of close to 100 parishioners. Like most of England north of the Tees Denton is not mentioned in Domesday Book which has little coverage this far to the north.

The Church

St Mary's church has been closed for worship and deconsecrated, there is still access to the churchyard but the former church is fenced off as a private house. This church is not, however, the venue for these marriages, they would have taken place in a medieval church which has been demolished. Today's former church is the third iteration having been completed in 1891 to replace a church of 1837 which in turn replaced the medieval one. The building is in the Early English Gothic style, once again fashionable in Victorian times, and built in the local stone. The site sits east of the village's lane on the southern side of the dead-end side lane, a small gate grants access to the churchyard which sadly is becoming slightly overgrown.