England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Stansfield All Saints

The Parish

The parish of Stansfield lies in southwestern Suffolk roughly 11 miles northwest of the market town of Sudbury. Stansfield sits within a broad area devoid of significant numbered roads, the closest such road being the A143 (linking Haverhill with Bury St Edmunds) which lies over 3 miles to its northwest. Stansfield has only a small village, a run of properties lying alongside a north to south running lane with the densest congregation sitting south of the infant River Glem. The wider parish is dotted with farmsteads and cottages a few places these are coalesced into small hamlets. Like most Suffolk parishes Stansfield is and was an arable farming parish, a few pastures and managed copses but most land was used for growing cereals in a traditional rotation. Stansfield is drained southeastwards by the Glem which meets the Stour at the county's border with neighbouring Essex, the Stour forms the border all along its course reaching the North Sea through Manningtree and the twin ports of Felixstowe and Harwich. Stansfield is sited at between 60 and 90 metres above the sea, its properties rising either side of the bridge over the Glem, land reaches just over 100 metres in a few places further south in gently rolling countryside. Covering just under 2,000 acres Stansfield parish was larger than many around it and would have supported a population of close to 500 parishioners. Domesday Stansfield was a much smaller place shared between Count Gilbert's son Richard and Bury St Edmunds Abbey it could muster just 3 ploughs, a small meadow but did have a mill.

The Church

All Saints' church sits at the top the rise north of the River Glem on the western side of Plough Hill. The church was largely built between the end of the 13th century and the middle of the 14th, the nave is the oldest portion with Pevsner giving it a date of c1300, this places it on the cusp between Early English Gothic and the following Decorated style, Transitional is the better term for this mixture of the two styles. To the west the tower is later and firmly Decorated in style and with a polygonal battlemented stair turret to the north. Similarly Decorated in style is the chancel which lacks the battlements of its neighbouring pieces and carries a fine east window. Little changed between the 14th and 19th centuries except the addition of the southern porch in the early 16th. Two phases of Victorian restoration are recorded, that of 1886 tackled the main body of nave & chancel whilst 10 years later the tower received similar restoration. The verge has been worn free of grass by local parking to use the church and serves for a car or two. The church sits back from the road with its western end embedded into surrounding trees removing the views of the western tower, only a few angles remain for the photographer.