England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Brent Eleigh St Mary

The Parish

The parish of Brent Eleigh lies in southwestern Suffolk roughly 2 1/2 miles east of the historic weaving market town of Lavenham. Brent Eleigh sits on and mostly north of the A1141 road which links Lavenham with Hadleigh. In the distant past Brent Eleigh had been a small market town but that status has long since lapsed and it is today a mid-sized village with a small presence on the A1141 but with most properties lying along the lane headed northwards towards the church and the Hall, Brent Eleigh Hall appears externally to be Georgian but is recorded in documentation as early as 1607. In common with most Suffolk parishes Brent Eleigh is an arable farming parish, the valley of the infant River Brett would have provided a little variation to the typical cereals and root crop mixture and today newer crops like oil-seed provide splashes of vibrant yellow to the fields. Brent Eleigh is drained southeastwards by the Brett which passes through Hadleigh, turns more southerly and eventually meets the Stour at the Essex border for the last few miles to the latter's estuary and the North Sea. Brent Eleigh is sited at between 40 & 60 metres above the sea land rising northwards away from the Brett, a few spots northwards just breach the 80 metre contour as the highest ground in lightly rolling terrain. Covering just under 1,600 acres Brent Eleigh parish was typical of its area, that acreage would have supported a population of close to 300 parishioners. In Domesday Book Brent Eleigh is recorded together with Monks Eleigh, the combined settlement being large enough to be counted in the top 20% by population, their joint assets are spread across 5 landholders and total 22 ploughs, meadows and woodland and 3 mills making for a wealthy joint set of holdings, it is impossible from the records to distinguish which assets and which landholders were specific to Brent Eleigh.

The Church

St Mary's church sits to the north of the village adjacent to Brent Eleigh Hall and accessed from Hall Road by a gravel-surfaced track. The medieval church seems to have been built almost in a single campaign with the main body of the church largely early 14th century whilst the tower comes from the latter half of the same century. Historic England rightly describe the church as "an outstanding example of a manorial church; with many original features". The nave is most easily dated feature with its mixture of Decorated fabric for the main build yet its northern wall already shows fashions changing into Perpendicular with most windows of that face being in the later style. The southern doorway is also Decorated in style and features carved reticulated tracery. The western tower is fully from the latter stages of the build and comes with typical battlementation. The eastern end of the church has had a more complex history, it has contemporary origins with the nave from 1720 until relatively recently it had attached to its eastern end a library, this was removed in 1860 and today's east window dates from that work. A free-standing replacement for the library was finally demolished in 1988. There was no typical Victorian restoration here allowing us to see the medieval work as it was intended. The track to the church is gated, it may be necessary to par at the entrance. The church sits within a rather thin strip of a churchyard but which still allows adequate views from most of the photographer's favoured aspects.