England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Hoxne St Peter & St Paul

The Parish

The parish of Hoxne lies in the extreme north of Suffolk forming a short stretch of the county's border with neighbouring Norfolk. Hoxne is located roughly 5 miles east of the Norfolk market town of Diss and sits on and mostly south of the B1118 road which links the A140 (Norwich to Ipswich) road with Stradbroke. Hoxne's chief claim to historic fame is as the site of the capture of King Edmund by the invading Danish forces in 869, he was brutally murdered by being strung up in a tree and shot through with arrows. On a more peaceful note Hoxne is a large village approaching small market town in size with most properties running in a curving straggle southwards from the B1118 for over a mile in a discontinuous stretch of properties until reaching Hackfield Green. As a large village Hoxne would have had some of the functions of a market town in that it had sufficient weight as to support specialist trades, the wider parish which stretches from the course of the River Waveney southwards would have been largely arable, as it is today, with a few pastures alongside the river. As the village sits a mile or so south of the Waveney it is drained that short distance by the Gold Brook, the Waveney heads eastwards to its destination the Norfolk port of Great Yarmouth and the North Sea. Hoxne is sited at around 30 metres above the sea with Heckfield Green some 15 metres higher in lightly rolling countryside where there is no land over 50 metres for some considerable distance. Hoxne parish was one of the more extensive in its county, covering a little over 4,200 acres it would have supported a population of just over 1,300 parishioners. Even by Domesday's times Hoxne was a substantial settlement, large enough to be amongst the largest 20% by population, held by Bishop William of Thetford its assets matched such a status with an impressive 25 ploughs backed by extensive meadows and woodland and by 2 mills, a wealthy holding indeed.

The Church

St Peter & St Paul's church sits north of the village behind fronting properties and accessed by a short footpath from Green Street. Pevsner rightly describes the church as "one of the grandest in this part of Suffolk" and that it certainly is, a fine example of the late-medieval style of the Perpendicular. Built from the wealth of the medieval wool trade it is a statement church appropriate to a sizeable village. Its western tower is a landmark across this rather flat terrain and comes complete with buttresses and battlements showing off its stylish flushwork in local flint. Most of the main body, too, is contemporaneous with the exception of the chancel which was rebuilt in Victorian times, most of the church being a product of the 15th century. The chancel's build in 1853 was a portion of a typical Victorian restoration but had to, itself, be restored in a further phase of 1879. One of the main attractions of the church sits internally, a splendid array of medieval wall paintings depicting works including the 7 Deadly Sins and the Last Judgement, worth a visit in their own right. In very recent times a move to commemorate the death of King Edmund has seen his name appended in 2020 to the church's dedication it now being St Peter, St Paul & St Edmund. Opposite the entrance a widening of Green Street allows a car or two to park off-road, the lychgate is concealed into the access pathway and leads through dense trees to the churchyard, thankfully here things open out allowing unblemished views of the church's impressive south face.