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

The Parish

The parish of Thorpe Abbotts lies in the extreme south of Norfolk forming a stretch of the border with neighbouring Suffolk. Thorpe Abbotts is located roughly 6 miles east of the market town of Diss and sits a half mile north of the A143 road which connects Diss with Bungay. Thorpe Abbotts is a small village largely built around a T junction of lanes, it sits on the northern edge of the Waveney Valley which here forms the county border. Its position gave it a slightly more varied farming regime than was typical of its county, the water-meadows of the Waveney giving it excellent grazing in addition to the easily worked, light soils of southern Norfolk. Modern developments have come and disappeared from Thorpe Abbotts, the former railway branch line from the Norwich to London main-line, running along the Waveney Valley, has been exploited to make the formerly winding A143 into a fast trunk road for traffic to the east coast. The River Waveney drains Thorpe Abbotts eastwards, merging at Breydon Water with Norfolk's Broadland rivers to reach the North Sea through the port of Great Yarmouth. Thorpe Abbotts is sited at around 40 metres above the sea, some 20 metres higher than the river, in lightly undulating terrain where local heights rarely reach much above 50 metres. A typical small, rural Norfolk parish, Thorpe Abbotts covered just over 1,100 acres in which just under 300 parishioners would have been supported. Thorpe Abbotts is not specifically mentioned in Domesday Book,

The Church

All Saints' church is separate from its village, almost a mile to the southwest, with its own entrance from the busy A143. The presence of a round tower is usually indicative of a very early church, this one, however, is of the 13th century and Early English Gothic rather than the typically 12th century Norman Romanesque versions, the tower, too, has been modified in the late 14th century to give it a Perpendicular style octagonal top. The chancel, too, is from the same era as the tower, being Early English Gothic, a blocked lancet window betraying the style, the nave's northern doorway dates from a similar period but enters into a rebuilt nave of the Perpendicular period from the late 14th century. The most recent addition to the church is the porch which carries a Tudor dating from the late 16th century. For once Pevsner does not mention a Victorian restoration, so if one occurred it was undoubtedly light and sensitive. The A143 is a fast , modern, road so it is somewhat fortunate that the church has its own, pull-in in front of the entrance. The church is well-screened from the road by a wall of trees shading the arched metal gates for entry. Once within, however, the churchyard is open and free from any photographic obstruction.