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

The Parish

The parish of Old Malton lies in the northeastern portion of central Yorkshire roughly 19 miles northeast of the city of York and on the southern edge of the North Riding where it borders the East Riding, here the border is formed by the River Derwent. Old Malton used to stand on the route of the A64 road which links York with both Pickering & Scarborough but thankfully that road now bypasses the small town to its north. Old Malton is the earliest part of a complex settlement involving the larger New Malton and, across the Derwent, the more workaday settlement of Norton. There is a long history of settlement in this location, the Romans choose it for their 1st century fortress of Derwentia, the site sitting midway between Old & New Malton. Old Malton grew firstly as a monastery town following the foundation of its Gilbertine priory in c1150, a small market town grew up alongside and served its region as a centre for trade and specialist skills. Throughout the Middle Ages this income from the market was expanded as the Derwent was navigable and a small inland port added to the town's income. Beyond the small town's limits the wider parish would have been farmed largely by pastoral means, the low-lying riverside meadows bearing rich cattle grazing. Old Malton had a short-lived spurt from the discovery of the efficacy of its spring waters and was also noted for its horse race course, both now disappeared. It is somewhat ironic that the first settlement here is nowadays the smallest of the three with both New Malton and Norton exceeding it both size and function. Modern developments have come near with the railway line from York to Scarborough, unfortunately for Old Malton it sticks strictly to the East Riding in its passage. The A64 bypass is now a speedy dual-carriageway which has markedly reduced the traffic dead-lock which once flourished. Old Malton is drained southwestwards by the Derwent which meets with all of the Dales' rivers to eventually turn eastwards to the North Sea arriving through the Humber Estuary. Old Malton is sited at just 20 metres above the sea, easterly views are dominated, however, by the rising ground of Thorpe Bassett Wold which reaches just a metre short of 200 metres at its highest point. The combined acreage of Old & New Malton comprises just over 4,000 acres of which that of Old Malton is mapped by Phillimore as just under; half other references give almost the entire acreage to Old Malton with the two parishes of New Malton given a token size, we choose to follow Phillimore, this acreage would have supported a population of around 1,200 parishioners. In Domesday times Old Malton was recovering from King William's "Harrowing of the North" and in 1086 was largely "waste", held by the King the manor had recovered to support 6 ploughs.

The Church

The Priory Church of St Mary sits southwest of the town on the eastern side of the former route of the A64 (Town Street) nowadays downgraded to being the B1257. St Mary was originally built as the priory church for the Gilbertine canons and was originally founded in c1150. The original 12th century church was much more substantial than today's parish church. What remains if the western part of the former nave and 2/3s of the twin-towered facade. The nave once possessed aisles and clerestory, its arcades have been walled up and the northwestern tower is reduced just to the plinth, much else has only been deduced by archaeological excavations. Whilst a few details remain from the 12th century detailed thoroughly in Pevsner's lengthy account much else is from the turn of 12th into 13th century. The facade shows excellent examples of the Early English Gothic style with lancets everywhere despite the insertion of its 5-light Perpendicular window, Pevsner finds the doorway "sumptuous" in a rare example of praise. Within the nave the northern arcade and northern wall stand out as later, their remodelling followed a fire in the late 15th or early 16th century and Perpendicular fashions crept in to the otherwise purely Norman nave. From 1877 major restoration began on the building when the parish was faced with the imminent collapse of the remaining tower, the tower was underpinned as part of a body of work to ensure the continued survival of the church. St Mary is a church to visit on foot as there is no immediately close by parking, it is a walk of less than 1/4 of a mile from the town. Apart from an isolated easily avoided tree or two there are no obstacles for the photographer.