England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
South Elmham St Margaret

The Parish

The parish of South Elmham St Margaret, one of a small group of 6 parishes within South Elmham, lies in eastern north Suffolk not too far from its border with neighbouring Norfolk. South Elmham St Margaret lies roughly 4 miles south of the market town of Bungay and sits in a broad area with no numbered roads, the closest major road being the A143 road which runs through Norfolk parallel to the course of the River Waveney between Diss and Beccles, the A143 lies almost 3 miles northwest of South Elmham St Margaret. This area of the county, like so many, is dominated by vast cereal fields as arable farming has almost completely eliminated even the small amount of pastoral farming that once formed field rotation, a landscape of big field and vast skies. That landscape is broken by a network of small streams, The Beck drains South Elmham St Margaret westwards the short distance to the Waveney where things turn back east to reach the North Sea through Norfolk's port of Great Yarmouth. South Elmham St Margaret is sited at around 30 metres above the sea and whilst land does rise gently southwards to eventually reach 50 metres or so it does so very gently and imperceptibly. Each of the South Elmham parishes is tiny, even by Suffolk standards and St Margaret covered barely 600 acres in which a population of just under 200 parishioners would have been supported. South Elmham St Margaret is not specifically mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

St Margaret's church sits on what is the major lane through the South Elmhams, starting from the Wavenery crossing at Homersfield and running through to Halesworth. Within the parish that lane performs a sharp right-angled bend and the church sits within that bend on the south side of the lane. The church is largely an amalgam of the 14th century but there are significant traces of earlier origins. A single southern window and the arched southern doorway show the Norman Romanesque style of the 12th century. The 14th century began with the Decorated style and the western tower shows this style indicating it was first to be rebuilt in that century. Everything else is in the later Perpendicular style of the latter half of the 1th century. The whole church shows well the use of the local flint as both a building material and more delicately in the skilled flushwork used. Outside the metal gates is a small parking area, large enough for a car or two to get off the lane, the churchyard is surrounded by an open railed fence and whilst there are trees around they do not cause any difficulties for the photographer.