England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Little Snoring St Andrew

The Parish

The parish of Little Snoring lies in north central Norfolk about 3 miles northeast of the market town of Fakenham. Little Snoring is a small and compact village lying just north of the A148 road connecting Fakenham with Holt & Cromer. Most of the properties in the village lie either along the lane which connects the A148 with its larger neighbour of Great Snoring or a lane which runs southeastwards off that lane towards Kettlestone. The area is almost totally dominated by arable agriculture with the notable exception of the land covered by Little Snoring's airfield, formerly a World War 2 air base and now a venue for light aircraft. The parish is drained by small tributaries of the River Stiffkey which drain northwards to reach the North Sea through the village of Stiffkey. Much of the area around Little Snoring is a fairly level plateau, the village sits at around 50 metres above the sea with the river valley some 15 metres lower but elsewhere there are few contours for many miles. Little Snoring parish was of a fairly typical size for a Norfolk parish, it covered just over 1,500 acres and would have supported a population of just under 300 parishioners. In Domesday times Little Snoring was shared between, the King, William of Warenne & Peter of Valognes and was a more substantial place offering 13 ploughs, small meadows and an array of detailed animals.

The Church

St Andrew's church lies to the northwest of Little Snoring's main centre on the eastern side of the lane which heads for Great Snoring. Pevsner describes the church as "an unsolved problem" as it appears to consist of the amalgam of two Norman churches potentially within the same site. The Norman tower, which is detached from the main body of the building is clearly a remnant of a different building which was earlier and subsequently partially abandoned for another essentially Norman church. Whilst the nave shows Norman features with later Decorated style modifications, the chancel is Early English Gothic. The major changes from later periods include the re-roofing of the nave in the 18th and chancel in the 19th centuries. The site is bordered by a brick-topped flint wall and access is through wooden gates at the southern end of the site. The site is quite open with no impediments to photographic angles.