England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Kempstone St Paul

The Parish

The parish of Kempstone lies in central Norfolk about 7 miles northeast of the market town of Swaffham. Kempstone sits, in lanes, about 1 mile south of the B1145 road which connects Bawdeswell & Litcham with King's Lynn. There is not much to modern day Kempstone and it would seem to have always been little more than a hamlet. Today it consist of farms and cottages scattered across a plain loosely grouped around Kempstone Lodge. Kempstone was and still is an arable farming community. Kempstone is drained the short distance northwards to the nearby Nar by a small stream, the Nar heads westwards to join the Great Ouse on the outskirts of King's Lynn before reaching the North Sea through The wash. Kempstone is sited at around 70 metres above the sea on the edge of a plateau with local heights rising little more than 10 metres higher. Kempstone parish was small, even by Norfolk standards, it covered just over 800 acres and would have supported barely 50 parishioners. In Domesday times it was equally small, a parish offering just two ploughs to its landholder William de Warenne.

The Church

St Paul's church is a ruin and largely inaccessible today, even Pevsner being unable to visit the site. Other more intrepid trespassers have visited despite the lack of rights of way and report an ivy covered ruin, roofless and partially collapsed. The tower would have been the oldest portion of the building, 14th century and Decorated in style. The remainder being later and Perpendicular in style. Archival photos reveal a pleasant but typical small Norfolk church. For those wishing to see the rubble of the building, some have approached from the west via farm tracks from the Litcham to Great Dunham road.