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

The Parish

The parish of Shudy Camps lies in the extreme southeast of Cambridgeshire forming an extensive stretch of the border not only with neighbouring Suffolk but also with Essex. Shudy Camps is located just under 4 miles west of the Suffolk market town of Haverhill and sits about 2 miles south of the A1307 road which links Haverhill through to Cambridge. Shudy Camps is a rather linear small village, most properties lying along an inverted "L" shape of lanes or two eastward running spurs from these lanes. Like most paroshes in this area Shudy Camps would have been chiefly an arable farming parish, the area has changed only marginally with large fields of cereals, beet & oil-seed lying under the big East Anglian skies. Shudy Camps is drained northeastwards by a small tributary of the infant River Stourm that tributary passes through Haverhill to meet the Stour, which then runs along the border between Suffolk & Essex all the way to the North Sea where it arrives between the twin ports of Felixstowe & Harwich. Shudy Camps is built upon a rising site, the lower properties at 80 metres whilst the upper ones in the south stand at 110 metres, land rises only gently to neighbouring Castle Camps which at 123 metres is the highest point in its low-lying county. Shudy Camps parish was fairly typically sized for its area, covering around 2,200 acres it would have supported a population of close to 400 parishioners. In Domesday times the twin parishes of Castle & Shudy Camps were mentioned in a single entry, a holding of Robert Gernon and another of Aubrey de Vere, one is tempted to assign each to one of the present villages, collectively their assets totalled 17 ploughs plus extensive, pig-infested, woodland & smaller meadows.

The Church

St Mary's church sits on the eastern side of Church Road, the main lane which runs through the properties on a north to south course. The church has its origins in the Early English Gothic era of the 13th century, the original church, however, was almost completely rebuilt during the late 14th or early 15th centuries when Perpendicular styling was in vogue, the only traces of the original 13th century fabric lie in the southern doorway of the chancel with its double-chamfered moulding.  Everywhere else has been replaced in the Perpendicular rebuild of the western tower, aisleless nave and the remainder of the chancel. Further work on the chancel was needed in 1703 when the eastern wall was rebuilt, an unusual date for church building and probably necessitated by imminent failure. Two phases of Victorian restoration added further to the changes, the first in an extended phase covering all of the 1870s, the second of 1895. Church Road is sufficiently broad enough, with an extensive western verge, to allow careful parking. The churchyard, surrounded by a typical flint & brick wall, has metal gates for entry which lead to a path running south of the church through the churchyard, a few trees require the photographer to take a studied position to get the best views of the church.