England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Hoe St Andrew

The Parish

The parish of Hoe lies almost centrally within Norfolk and roughly 2 1/2 miles north of the market town of East Dereham. Hoe sits a half mile east of the B1110 road which links East Dereham with North Elmham. There is very little to Hoe just the church and the hall, parts of which date back to the 17th century, together with the usual scatter of farms and cottages across the wider parish. Like most Norfolk parish Hoe is an arable farming settlement with broad fields, many hedges removed for ease of use of modern equipment, of largely cereals. Modern developments have come to the parish with a railway line running north from East Dereham to Fakenham although that line has closed it is now the heritage steam line of the Mid-Norfolk Railway. Hoe is drained northwards by a branch of the Black Water which joins with the main flow just before reaching the River Wensum to the southeast of North Elmham, the Wensum heads east and passes through the city of Norwich, merges with the Yare and enters the North Sea through the port of Great Yarmouth. Hoe is sited at around 50 metres above the sea in relatively flat terrain where local high points just fail to reach the 60 metre contour. Hoe parish was typically sized for its county covering just over 1,300 acres and would have supported a population of close to 200 parishioners. Domesday Hoe was held by Ely Abbey and was an equally small place with a mill its main asset backed by a small meadow and some woodland, no ploughs were recorded for its 20 households.

The Church

St Andrew's church stands on the northern side of the main lane passing through the parish accompanied by a large farm complex and the hall. St Andrew is an unusual church, it appears almost barn-like in its uniform height of nave and chancel, a fact emphasized by its lack of a typical tower of which only the stump remains. Whilst undoubtedly medieval in origin much of the church was rebuilt during the period of this transcript with the nave dating from 1794 and the chancel from 1820. Earlier origins are surmised by will donations recorded for bells and windows of 1509 from which we can determine the square tower was at least Perpendicular before its truncation. If it appears to be one continuous box externally the effect is maintained internally as there is no surviving chancel arch dividing the ritual space from the nave. The lane passing the church is narrow but carries very little traffic, the verges proving acceptable for careful parking. Sadly for the photographer the church sits within a thickly wooded churchyard from which no real clear views can be obtained, a tricky church to adequately record for the photographer.