England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Little Bradley All Saints

The Parish

The parish of Little Bradley lies in the extreme southwest of Suffolk roughly 6 miles north of the market town of Haverhill. Little Bradley sits a quarter mile east of the B1061 road which links Haverhill with Newmarket. There is very little to today's Little Bradley merely a short run of properties running east from the infant River Stour to its church, Pevsner points out earthworks to the east of the church which indicate that once it was larger. Like most Suffolk parishes Little Bradley was and still is an arable farming parish with much of the acreage controlled by Little Bradley Hall which would have dominated the village's economy.Little Bradley is drained southeastwards by the newly formed River Stour which passes east of Haverhill before turning right and forming the county border with Essex all the way to the North Sea arriving through the town of Manningtree. Little Bradley is sited on gently rising ground from 70 metres above the sea by the Stour to 10 metres higher at the church the land continues gently rising eastwards and just breasts the 110 metres contour in a few spots. Little Bradley parish was small even by Suffolk standards covering barely 976 acres and supporting fewer than 50 parishioners. Little Bradley is not mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

All Saints church sits to the east of most properties just after the lane turns sharp left, the lane eventually peters out at the entrance track to the hall. Normally at this point it is customary to point out that round towers in East Anglia are indicators of early churches, whilst that certainly applies to All Saints it doesn't necessarily apply to the tower. What is not in dispute is the Anglo-Saxon fabric shown in both nave and chancel, both northwestern and southwestern corners have characteristic pre-Conquest long-and-short-work making the main body almost certainly early 11th century. If the tower lower stages are genuine they must have pre-dated the nave and been from the very earliest period for stone-built churches. However, the top stage is octagonal and Perpendicular in style and probably relates to will bequests of the mid 15th century. Disbelievers in the origins of the tower acknowledge the fabric but believe the whole tower was rebuilt from top to bottom whilst reusing the early material. Whilst the main body is probably pre-conquest 12th century work was done to extend the chancel eastwards in the Norman Romanesque style, a style continued in the chancel arch and the simple southern doorway. To summarise a heady survival not without a bit of mystery. Outside the gates is a gravelled parking area for a single car, the gates give way to a shady approach through trees, that theme continues with several angles removed from the photographer's portfolio by further large trees.