The parish of Gorleston has migrated between the counties of Suffolk and Norfolk over the centuries. It is included here because a detached part of the parish has always been within Norfolk and it was felt that Great Yarmouth would be incomplete without including its neighbour. There is precedent as Pevsner includes Gorleston within his Norfolk guide and I'm sure there will be no objection to having more entries rather than omitting this parish. Gorleston sits on the eastern coast (North Sea) and just across the mouth of the River Yare from Great Yarmouth. A mere glance down the list of father's occupations should serve to confirm it strong attachment to the sea and to fishing. Herring (The Silver Darlings) predominated during the period of this transcript and this fishery was boosted by the opening of railways to the major markets for the same. Gorleston has now lost most of its fishing fleet but modern industries supporting initially North Sea oil and now the offshore renewables have maintained some prosperity. Gorleston also has a life as a summer seaside resort with beaches stretching below the cliffs almost to Hopton.

St Andrew's church sits, appropriately enough, alongside Church Lane. Although the church is undeniably ancient a thorough Victorian restoration masks that externally. Only the big western tower escaped the restoration to show the 13th century origins. Much of the church appears to have been built at the cusp of the early English and Decorated styles of that date although the usual Perpendicular features were added later. The restoration of 1872 was, however, responsible for most of the external features albeit undoubtedly based on what was originally present. The church has a rather exposed position right next to a busy roundabout and with most of the gravestones removed it appears a little sparse.

Five standard 1600-entry register books cover the period of the transcript, the last running onwards to 1883. This was a large and populous parish.

The first register covers 1813 to 1833 and is filmed on Microfilm MFRO542.
The second register covers 1833 to 1852 and is filmed on Microfilm MFRO542 finishing on MFRO543.
The third register covers 1852 to 1869 and is filmed on Microfilm MFRO780.
The fourth register covers 1869 to 1879 and is also filmed on Microfilm MFRO780.
The fifth register covers the remainder and is filmed on MFRO783.

All of these films are relatively recently made and benefit from the superior qualities of recent filmings. This is as well as the third register, in particular, has suffered some fading making for a tricky read. The remainder, however, make easy reading and as such this was a straightforward transcript to prepare. Eagle eyed readers will notice some rather strange numbering sequences in the third register - this is due to later insertion of entries made at Southtown church and added to Gorleston's registers periodically.