England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Sandringham St Mary Magdalene

The Parish

The parish of Sandringham lies close to Norfolk's western Wash coast about 7 miles north of the port of King's Lynn. Sabdringham sits about a mile east of the A149 road which hugs Norfolk's coast all the way from King's Lynn around to Cromer. Sandringham is an estate parish, the original village long since removed to make way for the parkland and pleasure grounds of the estate. A few cottages and farms dot the landscape heavily gentrified to match the bucolic grounds of the estate. Sandringham in inextricably linked today with the Royal Family and is an official royal residence, their acquisition of the estate from Charles Cowper, however, post dates this transcript being purchased in 1862. The economy of the parish and that of the estate were totally linked with most employments working on farming and farming related trades for the benefit of the estate. Drainage through the parish has been heavily modified to provide water-features but generally makes its way south to meet the Babingley River where it turns west to reach the nearby Wash. Sandringham is sited at around 40 metres above the sea in gently rising land where heights of over 80 metres are reached before Anmer. Sandringham parish was one of Norfolk's smaller, covering just over 1,100 acres it would have supported barely 100 parishioners. In Domesday time Sandringham was a tiny place not even meriting a single plough and held for its meadow by Corbucion's son Robert.

The Church

St Mary Magdalene's church sit to the west of the House within a parkland setting and accessed from the visitors' car park by a track with a removable barrier (for special occasions requiring a car to the front door, such as Royal visits). Whilst the church is late medieval in its origin successive "improvements" have been made to fit in with estate's setting. Both the southern porch and the western tower are moderately complete Perpendicular pieces but much else is heavily modified by later work. As Pevsner puts it the church has been "Victorianized" in two successive campaigns of the 1850s and 1890s to today's showpiece estate church. Whilst a visitor attraction in itself that draws tourists when Royal Family occasions are happening it can be the scene of an unseemly ruckus as journalists and photographer jostle for position, enjoy it when it is quiet. The are large car parks for visitors and the church is merely a short walk and the immediately surroundings have no obstacles for the photographer.