England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Boulge St Michael

The Parish

The parish of Boulge lies in southeastern Suffolk about 3 miles north of the port & market town of Woodbridge. Boulge sits a little over a mile northwest of the A12 road which connects Ipswich with Lowestoft. There is very little in the way of settlement within Boulge parish, no village as such just a scatter of farms and cottages. As an estate run "closed" parish with most land controlled by a a single landholder a village never grew. Nowadays Boulge Hall has been demolished. Boulge's economy would have been bound up with the affairs of the estate but arable farming, as for much of this area then and still, would have been the principal activity. A small stream drains the parish southwards eventually becoming the feeder to Martlesham Creek thus reaching the North Sea through the Deben Estuary. Boulge is sited at around 40 metres above the sea in largely flat or gently undulating countryside, local heights reach barely 15 metres or so higher within many miles. Boulge parish was tiny in extent, one of the smallest in a county of small parishes, it covered just over 500 acres and would have supported fewer than 50 parishioners. In Domesday times Boulge was equally small, offering a single plough, but incredibly this tiny place was shared between no fewer than 8 landholders.

The Church

St Michael's church stands within the grounds of the former estate reached down a roughly surfaced track which heads southwestwards, westwards and finally northwestwards to reach the site. Sadly little remains of any mediaeval content, the western tower remains as a piece of the early 16th century whilst everything else seems to have been built or rebuilt in Victorian times. The church clearly did not impress Pevsner who's text description is short covering just 2 lines. The site is rather enclosed by trees, the approach being heavily wooded, but stands on the edge of open fields to its west. The trees do hamper photographic angles limiting those available.