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

The Parish

The parish of Swannington lies in the eastern portion of central Norfolk roughly 10 miles northwest of the city of Norwich. Swannington sits just under 2 miles north of the A1067 road which links Norwich with the market town of Fakenham. Swannington is an estate village, a rather small place consisting of the estate of Swannington Hall, home to the Richers family in an early 16th century "H" plan manor, and a few properties grouped around the main junction of The Street with Church Lane, a few more properties sit a few hundred yards further south. Like most Norfolk parishes Swannington was a farming village with over 60% of the parish acreage as set to arable, a feature of the parish was its extensive common at almost 20% of the remaining acreage. Indeed today much of the parish has been subsumed in dense forestry, the soils being particularly poor for growing grain. A small brook drains the parish southwards to join the nearby River Wensum, the latter flows through the city of Norwich merges with the Yare and reaches the North Sea through the port of Great Yarmouth. Swannington is sited at around 20 metres above the sea in gentle terrain where land only reaches 45 metres en route to the small market town of Reepham to the northwest. At just over 1,400 acres Swannington parish was fairly typically sized for its area, within that acreage it would have supported a population of around 350 parishioners. In Domesday times Swannington was equally rural, shared between Walter Giffard and Count Alan of Brittany its assets totalled 7 ploughs complemented by the usual meadows and woodland.

The Church

St Margaret's church sits at the junction of The Street with Church Lane, on the eastern side of the former lane. St Margaret is a church which has been subject to considerable restoration in Victorian times and also to modern 20th century adjustment. At its core the church dates from the early 14th century, a date and a style, Decorated, seen in both northern and southern aisles despite later work. Decorated style windows also grace the chancel albeit Pevsner consider them to be authentic replacements rather than genuine medieval originals.Of more confident dating are the later 14th and 15th century features of the church in the Perpendicular style, both arches between the rather short and squat western tower and the nave and aisle are both typical of this style and era whilst the southern porch has confirmatory documentary evidence dating it to the 1450s. The western tower, whilst obviously from that era too, was so extensively rebuilt in the Victorian restoration of 1898 as to be almost entirely of that era. almost the entire eastern face of the church was rebuilt in a major piece of work. Even in the late 20th century changes were wrought as a rather poor quality kitchen was joined to the northwest of the tower and the nave partitioned to form a community hub. Both lanes by the churchyard are narrow so considerate parking is required, a shaded gateway grants entry to a churchyard which is beset by trees with the favoured southern aspects totally engulfed, a challenging church to adequate record.