St Mary Magdalene & All Hallows Honey Lane Parish Boundary markers -- Cheapside, City of London, UK
N 51° 30.853 W 000° 05.638
30U E 701633 N 5711014
The parish boundary markers for two London churches are affixed to a building in Cheapside, marking their historic boundaries
Waymark Code: WMTBMR
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 10/29/2016
Views: 8
London is full of parish boundary markers, bridge warden jurisdiction markers, city limit markers, ward markers, and government property boundaries. It's a fun place to search out these kinds of public surveys line markers.
The waymarked set of parish boundary markers is found at 107 Cheapside Street in the City of London.
The markers, from left to right, are for the adjoining Anglican church parishes of Mary Magdalene and All Hallows Honey Lane, two churches that were destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666 and not rebuilt. Their historical parish limits remained relevant, after the defunct parishes were absorbed into those of other churches that were rebuilt. It was simply too difficult to redraw all the parish boundaries, which had over time become the way to administer local government and services before formal government boundaries were drawn up.
From Mike Horne's AMAZING Survey of London Parish markers: (
visit link)
"Parish boundaries and markers
Before London had any kind of corporate government, and long before the London Borough had been devised as a convenient administrative unit, local services (such as they were) had to be provided by the existing historic bodies.
The parish already existed for spiritual purposes and had a form of 'management' in the form of its vestry and a mechanism for getting local people together, either in the church or in a nearby vestry hall. It was to the parish that local administrative responsibility was gradually given by Parliament. Even when new statutory bodies were set up to deal with lighting, policing, paving, sewerage and so on, the parish remained as the local unit capable of raising its local rate or tax. It was therefore important that people knew what parish they lived in and where the boundaries were. From this emerged the need for distinctive markers.
Over time, the civil and ecclesiastical duties of parishes diverged, and so far as markers are concerned we are referring to boundaries of parishes in their civil manifestation (many were subdivided for ecclesiastical purposes). Boundaries by no means corresponded with other boundaries in the area, for example the City of London boundary crossed through the middle of several parishes. Knowledge of where boundaries were and what they were for was vital."