England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Guestwick St Peter

The Parish

The parish of Guestwick lies in the northeastern portion of central Norfolk roughly 4 miles northwest of the small market town of Reepham. Guestwick sits within a broad area with no significant numbered roads, the closest such road runs over 4 miles to its southwest, the A1067 road linking the city of Norwich with Fakenham. Guestwick is a rather loosely aggregated settlement with no real village centre, a 3-way crossroads by St Peter's church being the notional centre of what is merely a scatter of farms and cottages across the wider parish. Like most Norfolk parishes Guestwick is an arable farming parish, little has changed since the time of this transcript merely hedges grubbed-out and fields enlarged to take modern machinery, the main crops of cereals, beet and oil-seed dominate. Guestwick is drained northeastwards by the infant Black Water, the Black Water meets the Bure west of Saxthorpe and heads off southeastwards, joining with the Broadland rivers to flow into the North Sea through the port of Great Yarmouth. Guestwick parish was typically sized for its area covering around 1,650 acres it would have supported a population of around 200 parishioners. Domesday Guestwick was a little larger than today's equivalent with the manor shared by the Bishop of Thetford, with the lion's share, and a Saxon survivor, one Hagni a reeve; the manor's assets of 14 ploughs, backed by meadows and woodland with a mill in support indicate a substantial rural manor.

The Church

St Peter's church stands at the main crossroads on Wood Dalling Road yet still faces open fields such is the loose aggregation of the village. The church has a complex history which indicates it is an amalgam of two historic phases of construction. The original church dates from the earliest times of stone-built churches, the late 11th century Saxo-Norman period. The original church being a cruciform church centred around the tower, scars left behind indicate the arches that previously lead into the early nave and aspidal chancel, now both gone. Archaeological investigations have revealed the original floor plan which also included a 12th century southern transept. Everything changed substantially during the early 15th century when the church was rebuilt leaving the tower sitting to the north of the new chancel. A new nave, complete with aisles and clerestory, and chancel rose in the Perpendicular style which is so commonplace across Norfolk. Typical Victorian restoration work here was sporadic across an intermittent campaign from 1849 to 1856 and was relatively light. Parking is a little difficult around the church so should be sort respectful of the sporadic traffic. Metal gates grant entry to a gravel pathway leading to the church, the photographer will welcome the fact that only the western end is enclosed by trees with easily avoided others dotting the southern aspects.