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

The Parish

The parish of Rougham lies in the northwestern portion of central Suffolk roughly 4 miles southeast of the town of Bury St Edmunds. Rougham sits either side of the busy A14 road which links the east coast ports of Harwich & Felixstowe with the main motorway network. Rougham is a large parish with a distributed series of settlements, from north to south we have firstly the estate of Rougham Park, the location of the now-demolished Rougham Hall, immediately south of the A14 there is the hamlet of Blackthorpe, next the church stands in isolation, then the main settlements of Rougham village, Rougham Green, High Rougham and Kingshall Street between them holding the majority of the population. These nucleated dispersed settlements are often found when former forest clearances are united into a village. Today the woodland remains in the northernmost areas of the parish, the remainder being rich arable farmland typical of its county. Modern developments have come to the parish, the A14 now being a very bust fast dual-carriageway taking untold number of freight wagons off the local roads. Rougham is drained northwestwards by a small tributary of the River Lark which is joined on the outskirts of Bury, the Lark eventually heads out into Fenland where it joins the Great Ouse for its final northward journey to the North Sea arriving through King's Lynn and The Wash. Rougham gradually rises in height from north to south, over its 1 1/2 miles rising steadily from 50 to 70 metres above the sea, land continues gently rising southwards touching 90 metres in a few spots. By Suffolk standards Rougham parish was a large parish covering just over 3,900 acres, perhaps 3x the normal size for its area, that extensive acreage would have supported a population of around 950 parishioners. A similar situation is recorded in Domesday times where Rougham with 127 households was over half the size of nearby Bury St Edmunds, held by Bury Abbey its assets of just 23 ploughs and a small meadow do not concur with that volume of households or the sizes of the two settlements today.

The Church

As already mentioned St Mary's church stands almost a half mile north of the main centre of population on the southern side of Church Lane and connected with the main village by at least two footpaths. The church, typically for East Anglia, is a mixture of the two later medieval styles, the Decorated and the Perpendicular, with St Mary it is the earlier Decorated style which forms the majority of the fabric. The highlight of the church is its highly elaborate southern porch with its finely moulded entrance arch, clearly a work of a master mason. Also from the earlier Decorated era are the chancel and northern aisle, it is very likely that the nave was originally completed in the same time-period but there has been much Perpendicular modifications since. The western tower is the main complete piece with Perpendicular credentials, documentary evidence from will donations place its build to the period 1444 to 1488. It is likely that in the similar 15th century period the nave was modified to insert the clerestory as well as many windows throughout being replaced. Three phases of restoration are recorded by Pevsner, the first of 1856 receives little comment, the second of 1873 added a northern vestry whilst the third of 1900 raised Pevsner's ire with its "monstrous" southern vestry and organ chamber. Parking for a car or two can be made outside the lychgate which grants entry at the eastern end of the site, it sits under a large and shady tree, that theme dominates the eastern end removing some of the favoured aspect but all other angles are available for the photographer.