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

The Parish

The parish of Yaxham lies almost centrally within Norfolk about 2 1/2 miles southeast of the market town of East Dereham. Yaxham is a small village which sits on and mostly east of the B1135 road which winds its way from East Dereham to Wymondham. The B road performs a series of sharp right-angled bends to pass through the western end of the village whilst a tail of properties heads east on th broad lane heading for Mattishall. Like most Norfolk parishes Yaxham would have earned its income from arable farming, early gazetteers place as much as 90% of the parish acreage as set to the growing of arable crops with cereals predominant. Today little has changed around the village as most land consists of broad arable fields mostly set to wheat & barley. Modern developments have come to Yaxham, a branch railway line connecting East Dereham to the Norwich to Ely line operated commercially as part of the network for some time before being closed and re-emerging as a heritage line, plans are afoot to reopen the line again. Yaxham sits on the southern banks of the infant River Tud which drains the parish eastwards meeting the Wensum to the west of Norwich and the Yare to its east before reaching the North Sea through the port of Great Yarmouth. Yaxham is sited at around 50 metres above the sea in gentle terrain that rarely exceeds 60 metres for some considerable distance. Yaxham parish was fairly typically sized for its area, covering just under 1,600 acres it would have supported a population of close to 450 parishioners. In Domesday times Yaxham was a typical rural settlement notable only for being shared between no fewer than 6 landholders, collectively their holdings totalled just 9 ploughs plus the usual meadows and woodland.

The Church

St Peter's church sits to the north of most properties accessed along the dead-end lane of Church Lane which runs northwards from the junction of B1135 and the Mattishall road, The presence of a round tower is always strongly indicative of an early church, in this case the tower dates from either the late 11th or early 12th century. The tower is, however, the only remaining portion of the church this early. The southern arcade with its 4 bays is in the Decorated style and Pevsner places this as 14th century, all of the remainder is Perpendicular carrying dates between 1435 and 1528 from documentary evidence. Even the tower was unaffected by this major rebuild, the bell stage being also from the early 16th century. More work followed in Victorian times albeit this was light and restricted to replacing the windows of the chancel, a Decorated style was adopted for these which may reflect their original style. Church Lane is narrow and shady, a small area is available for a car outside the entrance gates. The churchyard, surrounded by the typical flint & brick wall, has metal gates granting entry. There are many trees gathered about but the majority are set back slightly from the church allowing some views for the photographer.