England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Walsham le Willows St Mary

The Parish

The parish of Walsham le Willows lies in northern Suffolk roughly midway between Bury St Edmunds and the Norfolk market town of Diss, it being 10 miles southwest of the latter and 11 miles northeast of Bury St Edmunds. Walsham le Willows sits just over 2 miles south of the A143 road which connects those two towns. Walsham le Willows is a very large village, almost comparable with some small market towns, and covers a flattened oval shape roughly a half mile in diameter with most properties lying to the east of the north/south running lane (The Causeway) on which St Mary's church stands. Like most Suffolk parishes farming, and arable farming in particular, dominated the local economy albeit in such a large village rural services needing broader markets would also have developed. Weaving would have been a second income for many and specialist skilled trades would have found sufficient demand to base here. A small tributary of the Black Bourn drains the parish westwards to that stream, here matters turn north to reach the River Little Ouse south of Thetford; the Little Ouse crosses the Fens to the Great Ouse and reaches the North Sea through The Wash. Walsham le Willows is sited at around 40 metres above the sea in gentle terrain where local heights barely rise to a little over 60 metres within some considerable distance. Walsham le Willows parish was fairly typically sized for this area, covering a little over 2,800 acres it would have supported a population of close to 1,300 parishioners. In Domesday times Walsham le Willows was also a substantial settlement, shared almost equally by one Robert Blunt with Bury St Edmunds Abbey its assets amounted to 16 ploughs as well as the usual meadows and woodland.

The Church

St Mary's church sits at the western edge of the village on the eastern side of The Causeway, the north to south running lane that connects the village with the A143. Today's church is a product of the late 13th and 14th centuries albeit some reused piers from an earlier church are indicated by Pevsner as from an 11th or 12th century predecessor. The church utilises the Perpendicular style throughout, a style that became fashionable around the mid 14th century. The basic nave & chancel design with western tower is augmented with aisles and impressive seven-bay arcades, a tribute to the size of the congregation. Whilst the main build dates from c1400, documentary evidence indicates enhancement and improvement dating from the 1470s too. Like most churches the Victorians had their way too with a general restoration of the late 1870s leading to today's church. The Cause way is sufficiently wide to allow careful parking alongside the mixed brick & flint wall, gate at the northern end of the site allow entry. The church sits rather incongruously flush to the western edge of the churchyard where the tower is best appreciated from outside the churchyard, within there are no significant obstacles for the photographer.