England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Rushmere by Lowestoft St Michael

The Parish

The parish of Rushmere by Lowestoft, the qualifier is required to distinguish it from Rushmere St Andrew on the outskirts of Ipswich, is located in the extreme northeast of Suffolk and not too far from its North Sea coastline. Rushmere sits roughly 5 miles southwest of the market town & port of Lowestoft about a mile northeast of the B1127 road which connects Southwold through to Beccles. Rushmere is a tiny place and well dispersed too, a cluster of farms and cottages sits on the northern banks of the Hundred River whilst to the north sits hall and further still the church. Like most Suffolk parishes Rushmere is an arable farming parish with almost all of its small acreage devoted to crops such as cereals. Rushmere is drained eastwards by the Hundred River which soon meets the North Sea largely by percolation through the shingle ridge running southwards from Kessingland. Rushmere is sited below 10 metres in very gentle, almost flat, terrain only southwards beyond the Hundred River does the landscape trouble the 20 metre contour rising to a fairly level plateau at around 25 metres. Rushmere parish was one of the county's smallest covering a mere 759 acres within which a population of around 150 parishioners would have been supported, In Domesday times Rushmere was a more important but still rural place, the majority share retained by the King with Earl Hugh of Chester & Hugh de Montfort holding much lesser shares, its assets of 19 ploughs backed by the usual meadows and woodland indicate a wealthy agricultural holding,

The Church

St Michael's church sits roughly 3/4s of a mile north of the notional centre of the loosely structured village at the junction of Blower's Lane with Chapel & Rushmere Roads. The presence of a round tower in these parts is usually indicative of an early church and Pevsner is quick to confirm the 12th century Norman Romanesque origins of that feature, at least the lower stages are such but blocked lancets confirm the upper portion to be 13th century Early English Gothic whilst the bell-openings are characteristic of the short Transitional stage between that style and Decorated and of c1300. Pevsner notes a similar confusion in the nave with Norman stone work clashing with window fenestration from the later eras, perhaps the end of the 13th century saw a substantial rebuild using the original materials.Later work saw the brick porch added in the 17th century whilst a token Victorian restoration is mentioned from 1846. The gates of the churchyard are indented leaving an often muddy space for a car to sit outside, the churchyard is relatively free of obstructions but the position of the church close to the churchyard's southern boundary restricts aspects from the favoured south.