England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Great Finborough St Andrew

The Parish

The parish of Great Finborough lies in the western portion of central Suffolk roughlu 3 miles west of the market town of Stowmarket. Great Finborough sits on the B1115 road which connects Stowmarket with Hadleigh. Great Finborough is a small and relatively compact village, there being two distinct clusters the westernmost south of the B1115 whilst that to the east is north of the same road. Rather curiously the village sits close to the northwestern edges of the parish with Buxhall barely a half mile away westwards. The soils in the parish were a rather heavy clay which, at the time of this transcript would have favoured a more pastoral farming basis than today's typical Suffolk arable. Much of the north of the parish was dominated by Great Finborough Hall's grounds originally 16th century but destroyed in 1795 today the replacement building is a school with much of the parkland of the estate a golf course. Great Finborough is drained eastwards by the Rattlesden River which makes its way to join the Gipping in Stowmarket's southern suburbs, the Gipping after passing through Ipswich reaches the North Sea through the Orwell Estuary squeezing between the twin ports of Harwich & Felixstowe. Great Finborough is sited at around 60 metres above the sea on something of a local high point, to the southwest 78 metres is reached along the course of the B1115. Great Finborough parish, covering just under 1,500 acres was typically sized for its district, that acreage would have supported a population of around 450 parishioners. Great Finborough is not specifically mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

St Andrew's church sits on the western edges of the village's northern cluster accessed by a footpath from Church Road. Sadly the medieval church described in early gazetteers as "a neat structure in the later English style" was largely dismantled and replaced by today's church between 1874 & 1877 so this is not the venue for these marriages. Only the southern porch of the medieval church is retained, that dates from will documentation to the 1st half of the 15th century. The church's showpiece is, of course, its tall and imposing western tower beginning as a square tower but with the belfry stages octagonal and topped with an octagonal spire, the whole apparently added considerably to the rebuild cost and duration, Pevsner describes the overall design as "High Victorian" but also suggests it was somewhat out-of fashion at the time of the build. There is a widening of the verge to enable a car to park outside the metal gates which lead to a lengthy surfaced path headed for the church. For the photographer all of the favoured aspects are readily available from an extensive churchyard.