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

The Parish

The parish of Hindringham sits in northern Norfolk about 7 miles northeast of the market town of Fakenham. Hindringham is located roughly 2 miles northwest of the A148 road which links Fakenham with Holt & Cromer. Hindringham is a large village and rather linear in its form, there are 3 distinct groups of properties from south to north, firstly a rough square of properties on the southern edges, a grouping around the moated hall & church and in the north a further group at Lower Green. Like most Norfolk parishes Hindringham was and still is an arable farming parish, the soils are rich here and derived largely from the underlying glacial deposits left behind at the last Ice Age. Hindringham is drained northwestwards by a small tributary of the River Stiffkey that rises to the south of the hall, this stream meets the Stiffkey between the Walsinghams and Wighton before turning north to meet the North Sea through the grazing marshes of Stiffkey village. Hindringham is sited at around 60 metres above the sea with Lower Green, appropriately enough 10 metres lower, land hereabouts rises and falls only gently and the local spot height to Hindringham's south barely rises to 86 metres on the road to Thursford. By the standards of its county Hindringham was quite an extensive parish, many in this area are larger than such areas as Broadland, covering just over 3,300 acres it would have supported a population of around 700 parishioners. In Domesday times Hindringham was such a large village it was amongst the largest 20% of settlements recorded in that book, largely held by William, the Bishop of Thetford, with smaller shares in the hands of Osbern, Bishop of Exeter and Drogo de la Beuvriere its assets accumulated to 13 ploughs, meadows, pastures and woodland and also it held a mill, a wealthy set of holdings indeed.

The Church

St Martin's church sits on the western side of Hindringham's main lane, here dubbed The Street, tucked away behind fronting properties. Like many Norfolk churches it is an example of the great church-building era that was the 14th century. The church was almost certainly completed in a single build that began in the early 14th century, in the Decorated style, and was completed before 1500 in the following Perpendicular style. The slender western tower is the best example of the Decorated style in the church, this style predominates, the bell-openings showing what Pevsner terms "pretty tracery" inside reticulation units. The Decorated style, too, is found in many areas, the doorways, the arcades of 5 bays and the northern chancel chapel's arcade. Completing the church one sees the replacement style appearing, the tower has a Perpendicular west window whilst the aisle is of this style, there is also a typical Perpendicular feature, a clerestory inserted to improve internal lighting. Like most churches St Martin received the attentions of the Victorians in a thorough restoration of 1870, the chancel was the focus of this work and included the replacement of its roof amongst almost a complete rebuild. Whilst The Street is rather narrow it does widen south of the church to allow careful street parking. The main entrance leads beside Church Farm on a lengthy screened footpath between evergreen hedging but once within the churchyard there are no obstacles for the photographer.