England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Repps with Bastwick St Peter & St Paul

The Parish

The parish of Repps with Bastwick lies in eastern Norfolk not too far from its eastern coastline with the North Sea. The ancient parish of Bastwick was merged into Repps in the 17th century, its former church now consisting merely of a ruined tower. Repps is located about 7 miles southeast of the small market town of Stalham and sits just under a mile southwest of the A149 road which links Stalham with Great Yarmouth, Bastwick sits directly upon that road to its east. Repps is a small linear settlement with most properties lying along a lane running from the banks of the River Thurne to the church, Bastwick has most properties west of the A149 and is very much a typical small village sitting on a main road with garages and shops accordingly. Repps lies on the western edges of what had been an island in Roman times, Flegg Island, its area including extensive grazing marshes along the low-lying ground by the Thurne with drier land on the former low island. The mixture of farming which thus developed was predominantly arable with early gazetteers estimating a 3:1 ratio against pastoral methods. The Thurne drains the parish southwards soon joining the Bure before passing east through the port of Great Yarmouth to the North Sea. Repps is sited at between 1 and 5 metres above the sea with Bastwick at a similar height, in very gentle terrain spot heights of 20 metres mark the highest ground on the former island. Covering just over 1,200 acres even combined the two former and current parishes aggregate to merely a single small combined acreage, that acreage would have supported a population of around 300 parishioners. In Domesday times both settlements were recorded with both having many sharing landholders, Bastwick offered merely 4 ploughs and some meadows whilst Repps with 8 ploughs and larger meadows was clearly the larger of the two.

The Church

St Peter & St Paul's church sits at a staggered crossroads at the southeastern end of the long straggle of properties that forms Repps. The presence of a round-tower in this area usually indicates an early church and Pevsner confirms the 12th century Norman Romanesque origins of this one, albeit with a late 13th century Early English Gothic octagonal bell-stage and later still 15th century Perpendicular styled battlements in a mixture of flint & brick. Of the main body there are two ages represented, the nave is contemporary with the bell-stage of the tower i.e. late 13th century but with windows clearly replaced in the 14th century, the chancel, however, dates from the 18th century and replaced a Perpendicular version dated to the mid-15th century. Whilst the nave uses traditional Norfolk flint the chancel is a brick construction. The lane which passes the church is too narrow for safe on-road parking so elsewhere has to be sought and the church approached on foot. The churchyard is partially walled and partially hedged with a gap for entry, once inside there are no significant obstacles for the photographer.