Parish Church Of St Edmund

The parish church of St Edmund is a medieval building with later additions, located in Taverham. The construction incorporates flint with stone dressings, and roofs of pantile, slate, and thatch. The church comprises a west tower, nave, south aisle, south porch, and chancel.

The west tower is a two-stage round tower from the 11th century. It features a semi-circular headed lancet window to the west and a single light opening to the south. The second stage is octagonal, with 2-light Perpendicular bell openings. The tower includes gargoyles and grotesques at angles, a string course, and a battlemented flushwork parapet with cross finials.

The north nave wall has a doorway, possibly of the 11th century, with a semi-circular head and impost blocks. To the east of the doorway are a 3-light Perpendicular window and a 14th-century 2-light window with 'Y' tracery. The south aisle, dating to approximately 1863, has four bays with a south door and 2-light Geometric style windows, stepped buttresses, and Ballflower and Dogtooth ornament on the eaves cornice. A 19th-century south porch features diagonal buttresses, stone kneelers, and a parapet gable.

The chancel, also 19th century, is two bays wide and possesses restored 2-light Decorated windows to the south, incorporating a 14th-century priest's door with ovolo and hollow chamfered reveals. There are two 2-light Decorated windows to the north. The east window is a Decorated 3-light window with petal tracery and a parapet with cross finials.

The interior features extensive 19th-century work. A possible 11th-century opening in the east tower wall provides access to a west gallery. A medieval single framed scissor truss roof, likely from the 14th century, is present. The interior also contains a 3-bay south arcade and a Decorated chancel arch. Fragments of a dropped-sill sedilia with cusped ogees, a piscina, and an aumbry are incorporated into the south chancel wall. A blocked door opening is visible in the north chancel wall. Stained glass from around 1450, depicting a Crucifixion with attendant effigies, is found in the north-west nave window. The church possesses a 6-bay medieval timber screen with ogee Perpendicular tracery, along with altar rails constructed from 14th-century reticulated tracery, possibly salvaged from a Rood Screen. Medieval choir stalls display traceried frontals, poppyheads, and animals on the arms. A bench with poppyheads is in the choir loft, and a chalice brass commemorating John Thorp, the rector who died in 1515, is set into the chancel floor.