England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Stanton St John the Baptist

The Parish

The parish of Stanton All Saints lies in northern Suffolk not too far from its border with neighbouring Norfolk. Stanton is a large village located about 9 miles northeast of the market town of Bury St Edmunds, Stanton village held two parishes of which All Saints was much the more dominant and St John which is now deconsecrated. Stanton sits on the A143 road which connects Bury St Edmunds with the Norfolk market town of Diss, the busy road has now been moved to a bypass to the north of the village making the village's main street a much quieter place than before. Stanton sits in the middle of a large swathe of arable farmland and that would have been the mainstay of the economy at the time of this transcript too. Stanton is drained northwestwards by small tributaries of the Black Bourn, this joins the Little Ouse near Thetford before making its way across The Fens to the Great Ouse and thence the North Sea through The Wash and the port of King's Lynn. Stanton is sited at around 40 metres above the sea and sits on something of a plateau with land rising only to around 60 metres within many miles. The combined acreage of All Saints & St John's parish equated to around 3,300 acres making it large by Suffolk standards, the combined parishes would have supported a population of around 1,000 parishioners. In Domesday times Stanton was shared three ways, with the largest share held by Bury St Edmunds Abbey, collectively Stanton could offer 12 ploughs as well meadows & woodlands populated by the usual array of livestock.

The Church

As can readily be seen St John is no longer used for worship, it was deconsecrated and in 1962 the nave and chancel roofing was removed to leave only the western tower intact, it is now managed by the Churches Conservation Trust who maintain access to the site. What remains largely dates from c1300 at the very beginning of the Decorated style period, both the nave and western tower date from this period which might be best described as Transitional having elements of Early English Gothic too. The southern porch is later with Perpendicular styling indicative of the 15th century. Whilst the chancel was originally comparable in date with the remainder of the main body it had to have its eastern wall rebuilt in the Tudor period of the 16th century. The church also received a typical Victorian restoration in 1858. Sadly for St John it sat northwest of the village, it now is separated by the village's bypass, and whilst Stanton is a large village it was unable to support two churches and the more favourably based All Saints became the main church leading to St John's demise. The church sits east of the Bardwell Road where an unprepossessing wooden gate grants entry, a verge provides adequate car parking opposite, from the gate it is perhaps 100 metres across the former churchyard to the ruin which has most angles available despite many close trees around its eastern end.