England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Stow Bardolph Holy Trinity

The Parish

The parish of Stow Bardolph lies in the extreme west of Norfolk not oo far from its border with neighbouring Cambridgeshire. Stow Bardolph is located roughly 2 miles north of the market town of Downham Market and sits immediately east (and formerly on) the A10 road which connects Ling's Lynn to London via Cambridge. Stow Bardolph village is a relatively small place, a group of properties around a former crossroads of the old A10 with east to west running lanes, however the wider parish includes a broad extent of Norfolk's Fenland within which several communities thrive, the most notable, in terms of population being Stowbridge at the crossing of the River Great Ouse. The route of the A10 closely follows the edge of Norfolk's Fenland separating largely reclaimed land from the rising ground to the east, a string of small villages formed along this line, Stow Bardolph amongst them. Like most Norfolk parishes arable farming formed the mainstay of the economy, a situation greatly enhanced by the reclamation of large tracts of former wetland west of the Great Ouse, early gazetteers estinate that as much as 85% of the parish acreage was arable with small pastures varying that, today besides the typical crops of cereals, beet & oil seed many acres are set to table vegetables such as onion, leek and various brassicas. Modern developments have come to Stow Bardolph, the London to King's Lynn railway line passes through the parish without granting a station. Stow Bardolph is drained northwards by one of Fenland's great rivers, the Great Ouse which meets the sea by passing through King's Lynn into The Wash. Stow Bardolph is sited at around 30 metres above the sea but most of the parish is almost at, or even below, sea level, land rises gently eastwards to local high spots but rarely exceeds 40 metres. Given the extent of reclaimed land assigned to the parish it is not surprising that Stow Bardolph parish was one of the most extensive in its county, covering just over 6,000 acres it would have supported a population, quite dispersed, of around 1,050 parishioners. Even in Domesday times Stow Bardolph's population was such as to place it amongst the largest 20% of settlements recorded in that book, held by one Hermer de Ferrers its assets were relatively meagre given its population, merely 5 ploughs, a small meadow and an equally small patch of woodland were offset by a valuable fishery.

The Church

Holy Trinity church sits towards the south of Stow Bardolph village on the eastern side of Fincham Road. Like many churches in this area utilises the local iron-rich sandstone, carrstone, for much of its construction, this umber sandstone gives a warm glow in evening sunshine. A few features remain to indicate that Holy Trinity has ancient origins, Pevnser identifies 12th century Norman Romanesque windows in the western tower as well as a Norman arch separating the tower from the nave. These features are relatively fortunate to be left to record those origins as the church has received two major periods of almost complete rebuilding. The first, still in medieval times, came during the great church-building era of the Perpendicular which flourished in the latter half of the 14th and particularly the 15th century. Most of the tower is of this era including its massive brick buttresses. The second phase of rebuild came, typically, in Victorian times, in this case between 1848 and 1849 when most of the nave & chancel were rebuilt. Some internal features indicate earlier periods, the Early English 13th century sedilia & piscina and the early 14th century Decorated arch to the northern doorway but all of these features appear to have been rebuilt albeit from original material. Further to the rebuilding work the Victorians added a chancel aisle. Fincham Road has a well-worn western verge which is clearly regularly used for off-road parking allowing an extended visit. The churchyard has a low brick wall separating it from the road with a small wooden gate for entry. From the photographers aspect the church is badly placed, tight to the southern edges removing all of the favoured aspects and making for a challenging subject especially on a sunny day.