England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Thrigby St Mary

The Parish

The parish of Thrigby lies in eastern Norfolk roughly 7 miles northwest of the port of Great Yarmouth. Thrigby sits about a mile south of the A1064 road which links Acle with Caister on Sea. Thrigby is a tiny place little more than the Hall and church and a straggle of farms and cottages lining a narrow lane leading southwards from the A1064 barely a few yards separates it as a distinct settlement from its larger northern neighbour Filby. Thrigby Hall was originally the 18th century home of the local Ivory family but was largely rebuilt in 1876. Thrigby, like most Norfolk parishes, would have largely earned its income from arable farming, early gazetteers estimate that as much as 75% of the parish acreage would have been under, mainly, cereals. Thrigby, however, sites on the edge of grazing marshes lining the Muck Fleet and these together with the marshland activities of wildfowling, reed harvesting and river transporting of produce would have varied that economy. Thrigby is drained southwestwards by the Muck Fleet which soon meets the Bure to pass to the North Sea through Great Yarmouth. Thrigby is sited below 10 metres above the sea and much of the land hereabouts remains below 20 metres for some considerable distance. Thrigby is one of Norfolk's smaller parishes at 575 acres barely a third of a normal parish acreage, within that tiny acreage it would have supported little fewer than 50 parishioners. In Domesday times Thrigby was shared by 4 landholders but the greatest share lay by far with William d'Ecouis, collectively the assets totalled 5 ploughs, a small meadow but, more profitably, 5 salthouses.

The Church

St Mary's church sits close by to the Hall on the eastern side of the main lane, Thrigby Road, which passes through. What remains of the medieval is early 14th century in the main and shows the Decorated styling of that half-century. The style is particularly well shown in the western tower, which is largely unchanged from those times. Pevsner draws attention to the detailing on the four-centred tower arch and to the west window as good examples of that style. A further window of that period can be found on the northern face and the southern doorway is similarly dated. The Perpendicular period saw only the addition of the priest's door and there was little further change until the Victorian period. The major restoration of Victorian times came in 1896 and addressed the roofing and the arch from the chancel as well as replacing some of the windows amongst a general refresh. Thrigby Road is narrow and the church sits around a blind bend when approaching from the north, it is better to road-side park a little south of the entrance. The churchyard is hedged to the road with a broad metal gate for entry, whilst encircled with trees around the edges of the compact churchyard there is sufficient clearance for the photographer to achieve adequate images.