England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Snetterton All Saints

The Parish

The parish of Snetterton lies in southern Norfolk about 6 miles southwest of the market town of Attleborough. Snetterton is located roughly a mile west of the A11 road which connects the city of Norwich with Thetford and onward to London. Snetterton is a dispersed village with 3 distinct clusters of settlement, North End, South End and a small group around the church, all 3 lie along an out-and-back lane which parallels both the A11 and the eastern banks of the River Thet. Snetterton lies on the northeastern fringes of Norfolk's Breckland and has light and sandy soils, despite this arable farming dominated the local economy and still does today albeit supplemented with free-range piggeries exploiting the well-drained soil. Snetterton is well known to motor sports enthusiasts as its former World War 2 airfield has been converted to a race track, this sits just across the A11 together with a light industrial unit. Modern developments have come to the parish, the Norwich to Thetford railway line skirts the southern edge giving a station, albeit only a request stop, at Eccles Road. Snetterton is drained southwestwards by the Thet which joins the Little Ouse at Thetford thence into the Fens meeting the Great Ouse and reaching the North Sea through The Wash. Snetterton is sited at around 30 metres above the sea in gentle terrain where local heights rise little more than a further 10 metres for some considerable distance. Snetterton parish was typically sized for this area, covering roughly 1,800 acres it would have supported a population of around 250 parishioners. In Domesday times Snetterton was an equally modest place, shared almost equally between Earl Hugh of Chester and Roger Bigot it could muster just 5 plough, the usual meadows and woodland but possessed 2 mills in Earl Hugh's hands.

The Church

All Saints' church lies on Snetterton's north/south running lane, roughly midway between North and South Ends. The church is no longer used for worship and is in the care of the Redundant Churches Trust. The interior is stark as all the former furnishings, pews, lecterns and font have all been removed - one is reminded of a Puritan preaching box. The building has uncertain dates, Pevsner bemoans the Victorian's "too much restoration" but tentatively places the chancel and tower as being late 13th or early 14th centuries in the Decorated style, the northern arcade is typically Perpendicular but the nave is of uncertain dates given the extensive restoration of the 1850s. The building sits behind a typical low flint & brick wall with its eastern end presented to the lane, the verge is adequate for a car to carefully get off road, the grounds are well maintained with neatly mown graveyard. Sadly the church sits very close to the southern boundary of the churchyard removing the favoured aspects from the photographer's arsenal, there are sufficient views, however, from northern sides provided it is not too sunny.