Church Of St Edmund

NZ 3528 SEDGEFIELD FRONT STREET (South side, off) 13/35 9/1/68 Church of St. Edmund

GV I

Parish church. Circa 1254 aisled nave; c.1290 transepts and chancel; c.1490 tower; C19 porch; north vestry and organ chamber of 1913. Dressed and rubble masonry with graduated green slate roofs. Perpendicular west tower; Early English aisled nave, with south porch, and north and south transepts; chancel with north vestry and organ chamber.

Diagonally-buttressed, 3-stage tower has stair turret on south wall; square lights to second stage; louvred, 3-centred belfry openings; embattled parapet with octagonal turrets and spirelets. 3-bay nave has buttressed aisles and C19 Decorated windows; original lancet west of gabled porch; late C13 pointed door with nailhead in north aisle. Low-pitched aisle roofs and steeply-pitched nave roof. Buttressed north transept has 5-light north window with replaced curvilinear tracery (similar windows in south transept and east end); 3-light plate-tracery window to west return. Low-pitched transept roofs. Lower, 3-bay chancel has blocked priest's door and angle-buttressed east end with 2 decayed C18 wall monuments.

Interior: spacious, pointed 3-bay nave arcades on quatrefoil piers with shaft rings and carved capitals; west respond capitals have flanking head corbels; arches are double-chamfered with nailhead hoodmoulds to nave. Tall, depressed pointed tower arch. Transverse arches at east end of aisles, north and south transept arches and chancel arch have similar details to nave arcade. North transept has piscina and C15 oak roof. South transept has 2 piscinae and an aumbry. Inner order of chancel arch removed. Fittings and monuments: medieval grave slabs under north chancel wall and at top of tower stairs; brasses near pulpit and in north and south aisle walls; C14 male and female recumbent effigies in south transept; several C18 wall monuments in chancel. 1707 octagonal, fluted marble font. Circa 1707 Baroque organ case. Circa 1638 chancel woodwork possibly by Robert Barker for Bishop Cosin; c.1670 choir panelling for Rev. Denis Granville: oak chancel screen, stalls, sanctuary and reredos panelling in eclectic style with strapwork and rich poppyheads, garlands, cherubs etc. Elaborate chancel screen with pinnacled canopies. Later altar rails and table in C17 style. Pilastered choir panelling. Glass: 1863 north aisle window of Sacraments by Lavers and Barraud; abstract east window by L.C. Evetts.

(C.C. Hodges, "Sedgefield Church", Archaeologia Aeliana, New Series Volume XVI, 1894).

Listing NGR: NZ3567928827