England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Fincham St Martin

The Parish

The parish of Fincham St Martin (there were at one time two parishes in Fincham, St Michael covering the western half was absorbed in the mid-18th century) lies in southwestern Norfolk about 5 miles northeast of the large market town of Downham Market. Fincham sits on the A1122 road which connects Downham Market with Swaffham, and which follows the ancient Roman Road linking Castle Acre with their Fenland crossings. Fincham is something of a strip village with most properties lining the A1122, and adjacent side roads, and running for almost a half mile along it. The area around Fincham is good-quality arable land, a little sandy in places but good for the growing of the staples of cereal, beet and oil-seed that dominate today, it would have been largely similar at the time of this transcript except the fields would have been notably smaller than today's vast prairie-like expanses. Fincham is drained southeastwards by a small tributary of the Wissey which is soon reached, here matters turn back westwards and run into Norfolk's Fens joining the Great Ouse and eventually the North Sea through The Wash and the port of King's Lynn. Fincham is sited at around 20 metres above the sea, something of a local high spot in this rather flat and gentle terrain. The combined parishes of St Martin & St Michael totalled just under 3,000 acres making them a large parish by Norfolk standards, the twin parishes could have supported a population of around 800 parishioners. In Domesday times Fincham was held between numerous landholders, no fewer than 7 are mentioned and some multiple times, collectively their assets totalled an impressive 26 ploughs, the usual meadows and woodland and perhaps more profitably a mill and a fishery, its population was such as to place Fincham in the top 20% of settlements in that book.

The Church

St Martin's church sits towards the eastern end of the village on the northern side of the A1122, the High Street, and forming an undoubted landmark for travelers even today. The church is very large as befits a substantial village with the basic design of western tower, nave & chancel augmented by aisles and arcades. The south face which graces the street is particularly powerful statement of the village's wealth at the date of construction. The church is essentially a Perpendicular build which Pevsner places, through documentary sources, as being completed between the mid 15th century and the early 16th. There was a significant restoration of 1847 and a further remodeling in 1870 to bring about the present building. The church is admirably presented to the High Street, which has a substantial lay-by for parking stretching the length of the facade. The building is set back a little and separated from the roadside by a low carr-stone wall. Whilst this landscape view is excellent other angles are slightly restricted by surrounding trees.