Church Of St Edmund, King And Martyr

Church of St Edmund, King and Martyr, Stoulton

This is a 12th-century church with a nave, narrower chancel, north porch, and west tower. The building is constructed from rubble lias stone with freestone dressings, including oolitic limestone from Bredon Hill and red sandstone. The chancel east wall is of hand-moulded brick, the porch is timber-framed, and the roofs are tiled.

The nave and chancel retain their original 12th-century plan, though the walls appear to have been heightened. The exterior is divided by freestone pilaster strips with thin moulded bands near the top and offsets below the eaves. The south wall has a blocked doorway with a round arch set in a projecting freestone surround; its nook shafts are missing but it retains block capitals. Above it are two blind arches on shafts with scallop capitals and zig-zag decoration to the imposts. The north doorway has a simpler stepped arch, with similar superimposed blind arches that are partly obscured by the porch. Both north and south walls contain 2-light and 3-light Decorated windows. The south side has the head of a former 12th-century round-headed window, while the north chancel has two restored 12th-century round-headed windows; the corresponding south window retains its original head but has been widened. One south pilaster strip was shortened to accommodate a 3-light 19th-century window. The brick east wall contains a 2-light Decorated window over a shallow buttress.

The three-stage tower, built in 1936–37 by Peacock and Bewlay, has diagonal buttresses, a plain parapet with corner pinnacles, and a south-east turret. It features a 3-light Decorated west window and triple-cusped bell-stage openings with louvres. A blocked square-headed window in the west nave wall is partly obscured by the tower.

The interior has a simple 12th-century chancel arch with a stepped arch and plain imposts. Both nave and chancel have arched-brace roofs on corbelled wall posts (five bays in the nave, three in the chancel), appearing mainly to be from the 1848 restoration though they may incorporate medieval work. The roofs incorporate cusped raking struts above the collar beams. Walls are plastered, and the floor comprises red and black tiles with raised wood floors below the pews. Some 17th- and 18th-century grave slabs lie in the chancel floor.

The 12th-century tub font has a band of wavy lines around the rim. The pews date from 1848 and are panelled with doors. Towards the rear of the nave are two 19th-century panelled benches with poppy heads on their fronts. The polygonal panelled pulpit features Gothic panels. The communion rail dates from 1639 and has turned balusters, though its central gates are missing. The reredos (1922–23) by J. Harold Sayner of Great Missenden is panelled and displays figures of Saints Edmund and Wulfstan in niches on tall pedestals. In the chancel is a neo-classical tablet with a female mourner leaning on a pedestal, dedicated to William Acton (died 1814), made by Crake of London, alongside a hatchment. The nave contains a tablet to Anne Denelly (died 1780). A wooden war memorial plaque with raised gold lettering was made by the Bromsgrove Guild around 1920. Medieval glass fragments remain in the tracery lights of the south chancel window. The east window is by William Pearce Ltd of Birmingham, showing Christ blessing children and the Wife of Noble Character, made in 1906 for Worcester St Helen but moved here by A.J. Davies when that church closed in 1953.

The nave and chancel are 12th-century in origin, retaining their plan dimensions though apparently heightened. The chancel east wall was rebuilt in 1799, and the south door was blocked in 1821. A major restoration in 1848 by A.E. Perkins of Worcester included rebuilding the roofs, installing the present pews and pulpit, and adding the porch. Further restoration in 1914–15 was carried out by Walker & Son of Gloucester. The tower replaced an earlier brick tower built in 1799. The building was restored in 1848 by A.E. Perkins and further restored in 1914–15.