England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Shottisham St Margaret

The Parish

The parish of Shottisham lies in the extreme southeast of Suffolk not too far from its North Sea coastline. Shottisham is sited roughly 5 miles southeast of the market town and port of Woodbridge and sits immediately east of the B1083 which links Woodbridge through to the small village of Bawdsey. Shottisham is a small and compact crossroads settlement with mots properties gathered around a junction which sits a few hundred yards east of the B1083, an extension and a few properties line that road in addition. Soils in this area are light and sandy with prominent inclusions of collections of fossil shells creating a friable and light soil, this soil was exploited for its easily worked nature leading to almost total arable methods. Today the light and easily drained soils are ideally suited to the needs of piggeries of which there are many in this area. Shottisham sits on a narrow creek, Shottisham Creek, which drains the parish southwestwards into the outer Deben Estuary and thence to the North Sea. Shottisham is sited on a rising site between 2 and 20 metres above the sea in gentle terrain where local high points fail to rise as high as 30 metres. Suffolk has many relatively small parishes and at 1,000 acres Shottisham was one of these, within that acreage it would have supported a population of close to 300 parishioners. In Domesday times Shottisham was a rather tiny place with the majority of its meagre assets held by one Robert Malet, it mustered merely 2 ploughs and a small meadow.

The Church

St Margaret's church sits tucked away behind fronting properties in the northeastern corner of the village, accessed by Church Lane and a rising unsurfaced lane. This is a church where the origins are totally masked by later Victorian changes, even Pevsner is reluctant to call the lancet styled windows of both nave and chancel as original 13th century Early English Gothic features as they may well be relatively modern replacements. The most certain medieval feature is that of the western tower which is genuine Perpendicular despite its top being rebuilt in those Victorian restorations. Tradition suggests that the church was raised in c1313 and Historic England is comfortable with the early 14th century dating of the core. However, a church is listed amongst the assets listed in the manor's Domesday entry so maybe today's church is not the earliest manifestation on this site. The Victorian work came in a thorough campaign between 1867 to 1868 which besides the above mentioned work also added a new southern porch and a new northern aisle. Church Lane runs north from the main crossroads for a half mile or so before petering out into footpaths, it can support a few cars for on-street parking, from there a beaten earth lane head upwards to the churchyard and continues through trees to the site. Once within there are no obstacles for the photographer to be concerned about.