England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Swafield St Nicholas

The Parish

The parish of Swafield lies in northeastern Norfolk not too far from its North Sea Coast. Swafield lies about 1 1/2 miles north of the market town of North Walsham. Swafield sits at the point where the B1145 road, connecting North Walsham through to the seaside resort of Mundesley, crosses the infant River Ant. Swafield is a small settlement just a few properties strung along the B1145 either side of the Ant. At the time of this transcript Swafield would have been an arable farming community with small pastures alongside the river, today it is almost contiguous with the expanding town of North Walsham. The Ant drains the parish southwards to join the Bure to the east of Horning and finally exit the sea through the combined estuary of Breydon Water and the port of Great Yarmouth. Swafield is sited at between 15 & 20 metres above the sea, albeit the church, isolated to the north on a hill is some 35 metres above the sea, the landscape is best described as gently undulating, Norfolk is not flat but is hardly hill country; local heights top out at just over 40 metres within a mile or so. Swafield parish was small, even by Norfolk standards, it covered just over 800 acres and would have supported a population of just over 150 parishioners. In Domesday times Swafield was equally small, despite it's small size it was divided between three landholders but could only aggregate a pair of ploughs and a small meadow.

The Church

St Nicholas' church sits over a half mile north of the Ant's crossing on the western side of Trunch Road, the lane heading, as its name suggests, towards the village of Trunch. The church sits in splendid isolation of the crest of a low hill with extensive views all around. The western tower is oldest feature of the church, it is dated by Pevsner to either the late 13th or early 14th century. The remainder of the church was totally rebuilt during the great church-building era of the Perpendicular period. Both chancel and nave were rebuilt and, for safeties sack it is believed, the tower was given buttressing. As is usual the Victorians did their usual restoration, in this case in 1861 when the chancel roof and many windows were replaced. Restorations continued into the twentieth century as much timber required replacement, this being completed in 1958. The church sits back from the road with a hook-shaped access allowing parking on the verge, a few trees protect the site but otherwise the churchyard is open and with few obstacles to photography.