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

The Parish

The parish of Thornham lies in the extreme northwest of Norfolk, indeed it forms part of Norfolk's northern North Sea coast. Thornham is situated about 5 miles northeast of the large seaside resort of Hunstanton. Thornham is a large village which spreads for almost a mile along the A149 road which connects Hunstanton with Wells nest the Sea. Thornham's economy was derived from varied sources, arable farming on the inland slopes, pastoral farming on the coastal grazing marshes, fishing & shellfish harvesting inshore and a staithe capable of taking vessels up to 100 tons leading to a role as a port. Today Thornham is a desirable second home village, a magnet for those interested in wildlife and takes much income from the tourism trade. As a coastal community fringed by extensive salt marshes numerous creeks drain the parish into the nearby North Sea. Thornham is sited at around 10 metres above the sea, just sufficient to keep it dry except in major flooding scenarios. Thornham parish was quite large for a Norfolk parish, it covered around 2,100 acres and would have supported a population of around 700 parishioners. In Domesday times Thornham was a remote and quite small place, held by the Bishop of Thetford it offered just 6 ploughs and a small meadow albeit it possessed a mill.

The Church

All Saints' church sits at the heart of Thornham behind the properties which line the A149 and accessed by Church Street which runs down to the salt marshes. The church's origins lie in the 13th century although the building has been much modified since that date. The nave shows the lancet windows and Early English Gothic style piers of that period and the southern doorway is also indicative of that period. Much was modified during the 15th century and the fashionable Perpendicular style of that century appears throughout. A major catastrophe befell in the 17th century when the bell-stage of the tower collapsed, the present tower was a replacement of 1935 and is much lower than the original. The church received a major restoration in the 1870s when the chancel was almost completely rebuilt and much else refurbished. The church sits behind a low brick & flint wall with metal gates granting access from the southwestern corner of the site. The church is hemmed in with trees to the west limiting photographic angles somewhat.