England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Hessett St Ethelbert

The Parish

The parish of Hessett lies in west central Suffolk about 6 miles east of the market town of Bury St Edmunds. Hessett is a curiously linear village which sits on a north to south running lane about a mile and a half south of the busy A14 road which carries traffic from the eastern coast ports towards the Midland & North. By contrast Hessett is a quiet and peaceful stretch of properties which is almost contiguous with neighbouring Beyton to its north. Like most Suffolk parishes Hessett would have been a farming community, with the heavy clay soils here, however, arable would have been lower in volume than it is today. Hessett is drained east and then north by a small tributary of the Black Bourne which heads northwards to reach the Little Ouse at the Norfolk/Suffolk border, here things turn westwards to flow through the Fens to reach the North Sea via the Great Ouse and the Wash. Hessett is sited at around 60 metres above the sea in gentle countryside with few contours, land rises gently to the south to reach some 20 metres higher as the lane continues southwards towards Gedding. A fairly typically sized parish for this area Hessett would have covered just over 1,600 acres and supported a population of close to 400 parishioners. In Domesday time Hessett was chiefly held by Bury St Edmunds Abbey and was small place offering just 8 ploughs and a small meadow.

The Church

St Ethelbert's church lies on the eastern side of that main north to south running lane (The Street) at the northern end of the village. This is a fairly typical church which was clearly commenced when the Decorated style was fashionable and finished when the Perpendicular became the norm. The chancel is almost entirely of that earlier period whilst the rest of the church is from the latter. As the boundary between Decorated & Perpendicular is taken at the year 1350 it is probable that the build covered much of the latter two thirds of that century. Documentary evidence does, however, show bequests and work continuing until the late 15th century. Much evidence comes from the papers of the local Bacon family who have numerous monuments within the chancel. Also interior are an interesting set of mediaeval wall paintings which have been preserved. The churchyard is bordered by low hedges to the the roadside, which is narrow and requires careful parking, the entrance being at the southwestern corner. Whilst much of the churchyard is obstacle free a bunch of evergreens at the southeastern corner obscure the best views of that chancel.