England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Oxborough St John the Evangelist

The Parish

The parish of Oxborough lies in southwestern Norfolk about 7 miles southwest of the market town of Swaffham. Oxborough is a large village (it briefly had market town status with a market granted by Edward 1 but this has long since lapsed) which sits, in lanes, about 2 miles northeast of the A134 road which connects Thetford with King's Lynn. Oxborough and its surroundings have long been dominated by the local influential family of the Bedingfield, their 15th century hall occupying most of the parish land to the south of the village. Oxborough sits just north of the River Wissey which cuts a path of fertile land through the otherwise sandy expanses of Norfolk's Breckland, this fertility gave Oxborough a more varied economy than many Norfolk parishes, cattle grazing on the water meadows, sheep & rabbits on the sandier areas and some arable farming where soil permitted. The Wissey drains the parish westwards heading into Fenland to join the Great Ouse at Denver and thence to the North Sea through the port of King's Lynn. Oxborough is sited at around 10 metres above the sea and land is at or slightly above or below that height for many a mile. Norfolk parishes in the west of the county are larger than those of the east and Oxborough parish was typical of that, it covered around 2,000 acres and would have supported a population of around 300 parishioners. In Domesday times Oxborough was largely held by one Ralph de Limesy, a small place offering 7 ploughs, small meadows & woodland but possessed 2 mills and a fishery, both likely to have been along the Wissey.

The Church

St John the Evangelist's church sits at the heart of Oxborough to the southwest of the main village crossroads. The Topographical Dictionary of England describes St John as "spacious structure of flint and stone, in the later English style, with a square embattled tower surmounted by a lofty spire", that spire was, at 150 feet tall, one of the tallest in Norfolk. Sadly in 1949 the collapse of that tower destroyed not only that mighty edifice but also the nave and southern aisle of the church. Emergency repairs created a new external wall where the chancel arch stood to create a small remaining church surrounded by the saved ruin of the remainder. The church that remains is almost entirely from the perpendicular era and typical of a Norfolk church. The interest for St John comes internally where the Bedingfield's private chapel, fortuitously surviving the accident, contains some exceptional examples of terra-cotta monuments to the landed family, worth a visit in themselves. Facing the triangular green marking the main junction of lanes, the church sits behind a low flint & brick wall with a driveway into the site at the western end, whilst hemmed in from the south there are adequate other angles for photography.