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

The Parish

The parish of Thrandeston lies in northern Suffolk very close to its border with neighbouring Norfolk. Thrandeston is located just under 3 miles south of the Norfolk market town of Diss and sits a mile west of the A140 road which links the city of Norwich with Ipswich. A small and compact village, Thrandeston is largely built around its village pond which sits at an intersection of two lanes forming a "T" junction, further properties head eastwards towards the church at the village's eastern end. Like most Suffolk parishes Thrandeston would have, and indeed still does, earn its living largely from arable farming, a rotational system would have been in place at the time of this transcript abandoned with the advent of modern fertilisers and machinery, cereals are the main crop supported mainly by beet & oil seed. Modern developments have come to Thrandeston, the railway line linking Norwich,m through Ipswich, with London passes west of the village without grating Thrandeston a station. Thrandeston is drained northeastwards to the nearby River Waveney by a small stream, the Waveney, forming the county border, heads eastwards to reach the North Sea through the Norfolk port of Great Yarmouth. Thrandeston is sited at around 35 metres above the sea in largely flat, plateau-like, landscape where heights differ by little more than 10 metres from that height. At just under 1,400 acres Thrandeston parish was fairly typically sized for its area, within that acreage it would have supported a population of around 350 parishioners. In Domesday times Thrandeston was held by no fewer than 6 landholders with wildly differing percentages of the assets, collectively the manor held an impressive 17 ploughs as well as the usual meadows & woodland.

The Church

St Margaret's church, as already mentioned, sits at the eastern edge of the village on the northern side of the lane connecting the village with the A140 at Broome. Externally the church appears entirely Perpendicular in style and is very typical of churches in this part of the country. That the church has earlier origins is only revealed by close inspection, by Pevsner, of the interior of the chancel where details in the rere-arches of both northern & southern windows betray a 13th century Early English Gothic heritage. That being so the church was obviously subject to an almost complete rebuild during the late Perpendicular period. Documentary evidence in the form of bequests in wills reveal work ongoing during the half century between 1475 & 1525, a very late date indeed and maybe reflecting re-work rather than the main build. Dating of 15th century into early 16th century places the church almost into the Tudor period, very late for church-building given the events of Henry VIII's reign that soon followed. For once Pevsner fails to mention any substantial Victorian restoration so if one occurred it was clearly light & sensitive and left little major change. The lane which passes the church has well-worn wide grassy verges which are clearly used for visitor's parking outside the wooden gates which grant entry. Sadly for the photographer the churchyard backs onto thick woodland which extends its impact into the churchyard severely limiting the angles available.