It is supposed to be one of the best days of your life, but brides and grooms are now being greeted by angry messages on their way to an exclusive wedding venue.

The owners of the 16th Century Oxnead Hall, near Aylsham, have found themselves at loggerheads with their neighbours.

At issue are what the neighbours say is excessive noise from wedding parties, rowdy guests and a never-ending number of nuptials bringing scores of vehicles past their homes, some shining their cars' lights into homes when leaving late at night.

The neighbours, including farmers Susi and Roger Crane - who own the 500-acre Hill Farm which surrounds Oxnead Hall - have even put up signs on the way into the venue's car park, which runs directly past their homes and through the farmyard.

'BRIDES AND GROOMS NOT WELCOME IN OXNEAD', one says. 'NO MORE WEDDINGS WE'VE HAD ENOUGH', declares another, and 'EXCLUSIVE?? MORE THAN 100 WEDDINGS THIS YEAR' says a third.

But Oxnead's owners say they have done all they can mitigate the noise.

The Cranes, who live in nearby Marsham and also own the three rented houses next to the hall, acknowledge the signs are harsh, but they say they have reached breaking point.

Mr Crane said: “The weddings are really having a big impact on our residents’ lives, and that’s why we are up in arms about it."

Mrs Crane said it had "sickened her to the core" that the situation had been allowed to go on for so long, and they now felt they had reached a dead end.

She said: "Our residents are repeatedly disturbed by loud music way in to the night, even in their beds. One poor lady puts her children to bed to the sound of Michael Jackson.

"They are unable to sit outside their homes in the summer and are often disturbed by shouting and laughing.

"Guests have wandered through the yard and even relieved themselves in their gardens. They have left glasses in gardens and wandered down to the livery which houses 26 horses."

One of the residents, Lorna Crook, who manages the livery stables, said she had moved her bedroom from the front to the back of her house because of the noise.

She said: “When it was once or twice a week, you could deal with that, but it’s up to six a week. We all have to get up early and go to work.”

Relations have not always been so bad between the Cranes, the neighbours and the owners of Oxnead Hall, David and Beverley Aspinall.

Mrs Crane said: “They initially came to us and said ‘this is our forever home, we want to have a few weddings to support the upkeep of the hall’, and we respected that.”

Mrs Aspinall said they had invested thousands of pounds in soundproofing, employing security guards and installing a fence to keep wedding guests away from the homes.

This includes a state-of-the-art sound system which wedding bands have to plug into to limit their noise.

Mrs Aspinall said they also regretted the dispute had got so far, and that the signs had been put up.

She said: “I feel sorry for those poor couples that have been through so much, that [the objectors] have chosen this way of making their feelings known rather than coming to us and working collaboratively.”

Mrs Aspinall said they felt they had done all they could in terms of reducing noise and stopping guests straying off the site, and they were hoping to find another solution so vehicles did not have to drive past the homes and through the farmyard.

“We are aware [of the issues] and we are doing everything we possibly can to minimise them," she said. "We’d be enormously grateful if anyone could help us find solutions.

“We’ve asked for meetings and we’re trying to work collaboratively, but I have to say it has been very difficult and stressful for us - we’ve had staff resignations because of the way they’ve been treated.”

Oxnead weddings: The permission granted

Wedding numbers at Oxnead were limited before the pandemic. But after lockdown conditions were lifted to allow ceremonies to resume, the hall - along with venues across the country - found itself with a long backlog of couples.

Mrs Crane said: “They were granted permission to hold unlimited weddings, and we don’t know how that came to be. We have tried to challenge that with Broadland district council, but haven’t got very far.”

Mr Crane said the extra permission was granted without the neighbours being consulted.

A spokesman from Broadland said: “The development was considered to be acceptable when planning permission was granted, subject to conditions.

“The council is currently investigating an enforcement complaint regarding the breach of the noise condition on the site.

"This has not yet been concluded and the council will respond directly to the complainant once we have investigated this matter.”

Oxnead was the seat of the Pastons - one of England's best-known mediaeval families - from 1420 and 1732.

According to the website bridebook.com, wedding packages there cost between £8,650 and £15,495, and the venue can accommodate up to 200 guests.