England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Little Finborough St Mary

The Parish

The parish of Little Finborough lies in southern central Suffolk roughly 4 miles southwest of the market town of Stowmarket. Little Finborough sits about 1 mile east of the B1115 road which links Stowmarket with Hadleigh. Little Finborough is a tiny place, a real blink and miss it settlement of a few farms, the hall and church on a sharp bend in the narrow lane linking Combs and Battisford Tye. Little Finborough, like most Suffolk parishes in this area, would have been and still is an arable farming parish with cereals dominant upon the easily worked soils, the landscape has opened up in more modern times through hedge removal to aid modern machinery. Little Finborough is drained northwards by a small brook which meets the Rattlesden River to the west of Stowmarket, the Rattlesden River 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. Little Finborough is sited at around 70 metres above the sea in gentle terrain where a few spots on the B1115 almost reach the 80 metre contour. Little Finborough parish is probably the smallest rural parish in its county covering only 367 and supporting close to 50 parishioners. In Domesday Book both Great and Little Finborough are recorded as a single entity with that entity shred between 4 landholders, assets totalling 6 ploughs, some meadow and woodland and also a mill indicate a status similar to today rather than a settlement in the top 20% by population as logged.

The Church

St Mary's church stands together with the hall to the west of the sharp bend in the main lane through the parish, both are reached by a surfaced lane from the apex of that bend. Whilst St Mary is undoubtedly medieval in its construction and 14th century in what remains in an original condition, it is a church which has been modified across the centuries. The earliest fabric that remains is that of the southern doorway in the Decorated style, two windows, one to the southwest, the other the chancel's east window are also 14th century but from the start of the Perpendicular period. The northern side of the church has brickwork dating from the 16th century, the first remodelling it received, two further windows for the chancel's southern face are also of the 16th century. The next century saw the church re-roofed whilst a typical Victorian restoration added the northern vestry, probably added the western bellcote and remodelled both the exterior and internal fittings of the church. The dead-end lane to the church is driveable, it forks right from that heading to the hall and ends in a wider area for turning and parking. The churchyard is compact and surrounded in a bordering square of thick trees, it is fortunate that the church is small as a larger one would be impacted, in this case small is good for the photographer.