England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Sco Ruston St Michael

The Parish

The parish of Sco Ruston lies in eastern Norfolk roughly 6 miles south of the market town of North Walsham. Sco Ruston sits on the B1150 road which connects North Walsham with the city of Norwich. Sco Ruston is a tiny place, a real blink-and-miss-it location with just a few properties lining the B1150 and scattered farms and cottages across its tiny acreage. Sco Ruston, like most Norfolk parishes, would have been an arable farming parish and that pertains today, too. Sco Ruston is drained southwestwards by a tiny and intermittent stream before reaching  the River Bure in eastern Coltishall, the Bure, along with the other Broadland rivers heads eventually to Great Yarmouth and the North Sea. Sco Ruston is sited at around 15 metres above the sea in rather flat terrain, land rises only gently northwards where the 20 metres contour is sporadically breached. Sco Ruston was one of Norfolk's tiniest parishes, covering just 495 acres its population was equally tiny around 100 parishioners. Sco Ruston's entry in Domesday Book is decidedly misleading as it mentioned several much larger settlements, it is presumably a regional entry rather than for this specific manor.

The Church

As can readily be seen St Michael's church is in ruins and covered in ivy. The ruined church sits just east of the B1150 where a short dead-end lane leads to its former churchyard. Pevsner was unable to identify any architecture earlier than that from the 1860 restoration. The church met its end following the collapse of its tower in 1961 after which it was deconsecrated and abandoned to the ivy. A layby sits on the opposite side of the B1150 allowing safe parking, much of the churchyard is overgrown and thus a struggle for the photographer to get to the best positions.