England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Tunstall St Peter & St Paul

The Parish

The parish of Tunstall lies in southeastern Norfolk about 2 miles southeast of the large village of Acle and a similar distance south of the A47 road which connects the city of Norwich with the port of Great Yarmouth. Tunstall is a very small village, little more than a hamlet, sitting on the edge of the vast grazing marshes which lie to its east. The village sits just above the level of the marshes on what would,m in Roman times have been the shore of an estuary, nowadays confined to Breydon Water. Tunstall would have earned its living from a combination of arable farming on the drier land, grazing of cattle on the marshes as well as the wildfowling, reed thatch production and river traffic that their site would have enabled. The River Bure lies just to the north and would have drained the parish eastwards through to the Yare and the North Sea through Great Yarmouth. Tunstall is sited at just 10 metres above the sea in largely flat or gently rolling countryside, local heights barely rise above 25 metres for many miles. With large areas of grazing marsh, largely recovered by drainage, Tunstall parish covered a large area for a parish in its area, almost 1,600 acres would have supported a population of around 100 parishioners. In Domesday times Tunstall was clearly a more significant place, shred between 5 land holders it could offer 6 ploughs as well as meadows and did possess a salthouse.

The Church

St Peter & St Paul's church, despite its apparent parlous state, is still used for worship, it sits at the heart of the village where the main lane (Tunstall Road) jinks through the main area of settlement. Pevsner failed in dating the church due to the damage which has occurred stating that most details have been lost or are buried within ivy cladding. He did detect some Decorated style windows and this is probably indicative of a typical Norfolk church crossing the style change from Decorated into Perpendicular and probably originating in the 14th century. Many changes took place during the mid 1850s including the extension of the chancel in brick. As Tunstall road turns east for a short while there is a small triangular green with a large tree, behind a gate leads into the rather overgrown churchyard. The trees do restrict photographic angles of what is left of the building.