England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Broome St Michael

The Parish

The parish of Broome lies in the extreme southeast of Norfolk, indeed it forms, separated by the Waveney, part of the border with neighbouring Suffolk. Broom is located about 2 miles northeast of the Suffolk market town of Bungay and sits on the A143 road which parallels the Norfolk/Suffolk border connecting Diss with Great Yarmouth. Broome is a rather linear village mostly built along the old route of the A143 (the modern road now skirts the village to its south). Broome, like most parishes in Norfolk, would have been a farming community, it did, however, benefit from being on the edge of the Waveney's floodplain which brought pastoral grazing on those marshes as well as the usual arable farming regime of Norfolk. The Waveney drains the parish eastwards reaching the North Sea through the port of Great Yarmouth. Broome is sited at just 5 metres above the sea, in its valley setting it is lower than much of the land which rises gently to the north to reach local heights of just 25 metres on Spinks Hill. Broome parish was typically sized for eastern Norfolk, it covered just over 1,400 acres and would have supported a population in the region of 600 parishioners. In Domesday times Broome had three landholders, the largest share being in the hands of Bury St Edmunds Abbey, a smaller portion with Robert son of Corbucion and a tiny holding for Roger Bigot, collectively the parish could offer 11 ploughs, meadows & woodlands, more profitable assets were 2 mills and a share in a fishery.

The Church

St Michael's church sits almost a mile to the north of the main centre of property accessed by a footpath heading north from Rectory Road on Spinks Hill. Outwardly the church is a fairly typical example of a Perpendicular Norfolk church but Pevsner points out some fine details which show an earlier origin. Features of the 13th century show in the chancel where some unusual shafting and a single window show motifs of the Early English Gothic period, whilst the priest's doorway and other windows are from a century later. The church, however, was clearly significantly rebuilt in the Perpendicular style of the 15th. Documentary evidence shows the tower being built in 1431 and this date fits the style of the nave too. Like most churches a Victorian restoration took place, in this case in the 1860s resulting in today's building. From the junction of Rectory Road and Church Lane a footpath, unsurfaced but driveable lead to a parking area to the west of the church and a gravel path leads into the churchyard. Whilst trees surround the churchyard they are restricted to the edges and lead to few impediments to photography.