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

The Parish

The parish of Sotterley lies in northeastern Suffolk roughly 4 miles southeast of the market town of Beccles. Sotterley sits just over 2 miles east of the A145 road which links Beccles through to the A12 (Lowestoft to Ipswich) road at Blythburgh. Sotterley is an estate parish, dominated by the estate of Sotterley Hall and its 18th century house, once the home of the local Playter family who are extensively commemorated in the church. Much of the parish lies within the parkland of the estate with only a few farms and cottages mainly grouped at the western edges thereof. For such a parish the economy of the estate was paramount in the local economy and, in contrast to much of surrounding Suffolk, here they pursued a mixed farming regime which persists even today. Sotterley is drained northwards by a small tributary of the Hundred River, the stream being canalised and feeding an ornamental lake within the park, once the latter is reached water turns east to reach the nearby North Sea to the south of Kessingland. Hall & church are sited at around 10 metres above the sea whilst the northern edges of the estate rise to 20 metres, in gentle terrain a height of above 25 metres is something of a rarity. Sotterley parish was fairly typically sized for its area, at just under 1,600 acres, of which almost 1,100 are the Hall's estate, it would have supported a population of around 200 parishioners. In Domeday times Sotterley was an equally small and rural settlement, held by Earl Hugh of Chester, it could muster just 6 ploughs together with the usual meadows & woodland.

The Church

St Margaret's church lies within the parkland of Sotterley Hall estate, next to the Hall, itself, officially it is only accessible by the permitted path that runs in from the west. St Margaret has its origins at the turn of the 14th century, the curiously tapered western tower is given a tentative dating of c1300 and uses the Decorated styles cusped Y-tracery in its western window, a similar style but un-cusped is shown by the bell-opening. The remainder of the church appears to hail from the latter half of the 14th century and is almost entirely built in the Perpendicular style. Both nave & chancel show window styles of this period. Like most churches the Victorians made their usual intervention, in this case work began immediately before that era in 1836 when the western gallery was removed. That late-Georgian work was followed by an extensive restoration of 1898 which replaced the chancel roof and added a northern vestry and an organ chamber. The permitted path begins at Pound Road almost due west of the church, where limited parking may be found, but since it negotiates styles and grazed paddocks it is only for the able bodied. Rest assured that blushing brides in flowing gowns do not traverse cow-pat decorated pastures neither do sqawling babes or the villager's coffins, there are motorable roads to the church but all are determinedly marked private. Those less able or unwilling to follow the path are encouraged to contact the estate for permission to use them. Once the churchyard is reached it is a neat enclosed oblong with no obstacles for the photographer.