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

The Parish

The parish of West Tofts lies in southwestern Norfolk not too far from its border with neighbouring Suffolk. West Tofts is located roughly 5 miles northeast of the Suffolk market town of Brandon ans sits around 2 miles northeast of the A134 road which links Thetford through to Downham Market and King's Lynn. At the time of this transcript West Tofts was a small farming community in Breckland sitting on poor soils its specialised in rabbits and forestry with a little arable farming in places. All of this was to change in 1942 when the area was requisitioned by the Armed Forces as a military training area and the residents removed and re-house elsewhere, it remains a closed area till this day. Today there is no regular access to the former village, occasional trips are offered to view but they area rare. The closest one may come to the former village is the junction where a lane from Mundford meets another from Lynford that junction being over a quarter mile from the church. The military training area, STANTA, covers a wide area almost to the outskirts of Watton and is frequently used for tank warfare training. West Tofts is drained by a series of intermittent channels which eventually merge with the River Wissey which heads out into Fenland, joins the Great Ouse and reaches the North Sea through King's Lynn and the Wash. West Tofts is sited at around 20 metres above the sea, a few spots to its east rise to almost 40 metres in very gentle terrain. West Tofts parish was quite extensive, covering 2,700 acres it would have once supported a population of close to 200 parishioners. In Domesday times West Tofts was a holding of the Bishop of Thetford it mustered just 4 ploughs and a small meadow.

The Church

St Mary's church is sadly out-of-bounds for the majority of times, prospective viewers should contact the military range offices to enquire regarding the sporadic and infrequent visits. Whilst the church was once a typical Norfolk Perpendicular church and, indeed, the western tower so remains whilst the 4-bay northern arcade dates from the early 14th century in the Decorated style.The main body of the church dates from work done for the Sutton family of nearby Stanford Hall running from 1845 for a decade. For this work the famous/notorious A.W.N. Pugin was contracted, albeit the work was completed by his son. In 1845 the work began by creating the transeptal Sutton chapel in an Early English Gothic style, 1849 saw the reconstruction of the northern aisle, 1850 the southern porch. Pugin senior died in 1852 and junior undertook the ambitious reconstruction of the chancel in the Decorated style. Thus the participants in these marriages would not recognise the present church even if allowed to visit.