Parish Church Of St Edmund Or St James

The parish church of St Edmund or St James largely dates from the 12th to 16th centuries, with 19th-century alterations. It is constructed of coursed rubble with ashlar dressings, primarily ironstone with some limestone. The church comprises a chancel, north and south chapels, a nave, north and south aisles, north and south porches, and a west tower.

The chancel was rebuilt in the 13th century and has a 19th-century three-light east window. A 15th-century clerestory features three three-light windows on each side. The north wall has a pointed arch to the west and a blocked 14th-century window to the east. The south wall contains two early 14th-century two-light windows; a late 13th-century triple sedilia is set below the eastern window, and a 19th-century doorway below the western. A late 15th-century stone screen separates the chancel from the south chapel. The line of an earlier chancel roof is visible above the chancel arch. The north chapel, dating to the 15th century, has a four-light north window and a simple niche in the east wall, where the northeast angle has been rebuilt. The south chapel, also 15th century, has a five-light east window.

The 15th-century nave has three-bay arcades to the north and south. Its clerestory, probably later in the 15th century, possesses three two-light windows on each side. The north aisle features a 15th-century four-light west window under a pointed arch, a north doorway with a four-centred head, and two late 15th-century four-light windows to the east of that doorway. The north porch is a 19th-century gabled structure with a tiled roof. The south aisle has a pointed arch within a square head; a blocked doorway, originally serving a parvis staircase; a four-light window with a pointed head to the east of the doorway, and similar windows to the west of the doorway and in the west elevation. The south porch, dating to the late 15th century, extends to the churchyard boundary and has archways to the west and east, with a plain parapet to the chancel and embattled parapets to the nave, aisles, and chapels.

The west tower is in three stages, originally early 12th century and largely rebuilt in the 16th century. A blocked 12th-century round-headed window is on the north side, alongside a 12th-century round-headed arch onto the nave with alternating limestone and ironstone voussoirs. The remainder of the tower structure is dated 1583 (with datestones to the west elevation). Clasping buttresses are present on the northwest and southwest angles. An embattled parapet with pinnacles tops the tower. Three-light windows are on each side of the bell-stage, and single-light windows are on the first and second stages of the west elevation.

The interior features a plain, octagonal 15th-century font. A recessed tomb from around 1340 is located in the chancel, featuring a cinquefoiled ogee arched canopy and a large foliate finial. Brass floor inscriptions commemorate Richard Maulaye, a mercer, who died in 1506, and his wife, Alice. A tomb in the chancel is dedicated to Susanna Countess of Kent, who died in 1620, with alabaster effigies of herself and her two sons beneath a semicircular canopy. Numerous late 17th and 18th-century tombs are dedicated to the Bromsall family. The chancel contains a wall monument to Godfrey Thornton, who died in 1805, by J Bacon jnr, featuring a tablet surmounted by an obelisk and urn, and a monument to Frances Thornton, who died in 1862, by Samuel Manning jnr, depicting a kneeling woman by an urn on a pedestal. The chancel retains a late 15th-century roof with carved bosses, including a chained bear, a griffin, and a kneeling priest. A 17th-century pulpit has two tiers of arched panels. The tower arch retains a 17th-century oak screen. John Donne, the preacher and metaphysical poet, served as Rector of Blunham from 1621 to 1631, concurrently holding the position of Dean of St Paul's.