England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Elton St John

The Parish

The parish of Elton lies in southern County Durham not too far from its border with neighbouring Yorkshire. Elton is located about 3 miles west of the industrial town of Stockton on Tees and sits on the former route of the A66 road which links Stockton with Darlington. Elton is a small and linear village with most properties sitting either side of that old road now downgraded to merely Darlington Road. To the south of the village runs Coatham Beck, its water-meadows granted richer grazing to the parish to supplement the limited arable available this far to the north. In addition to farming some quarrying of the local stone for road maintenance employed a few, the name lives on in the names of Quarry Plantation and Quarry House Farm. Coatham Beck drains the parish eastwards, merging with Hartburn Beck before passing through Stockton to reach the Tees and the North Sea. Elton is sited at around 25 metres above the sea in gentle terrain where land rises westwards reaching a local high of 66 metres within a mile or two. Elton parish covered close to 1,400 acres making it small by its county standards, a size reflected in its congregation of merely around 100 parishioners. The line of the Tees marks the northern limit of Domesday in the east, consequently Elton sitting a few miles to its north is not mentioned in that book.

The Church

St John's church sits on the northern side of Darlington Road squeezed between it and the new bypass of the A66 to the north. Whilst the church has its roots in the 12th century Pevsner is uncertain as to what is genuinely original and what merely reused or recreated during 18th & 19th century renovations and rebuilds. At its core there is a 12th century Norman Romanesque church which has nave and chancel topped by a bellcote and augmented by a vestry and southern porch. That 12th century church received its first, and relatively modern, rework between 1709 & 1714 work described merely as a renovation. The Georgians then had their say between 1822 & 1824 when the church was partially rebuilt and finally between 1841 & 1842 there was apparently a total rebuild. What us clear is that features from the original 12th century were either replicated or reused as they still appear today. Darlington Road is amply wide to enable safe on-street parking outside the churchyard which is open, uncluttered and with no obvious obstacles for the photographer.