Church Of St Edmund

Church of St Edmund

A church with Norman origins, substantially developed through the medieval period and restored in the 19th century. The building demonstrates a complex structural history spanning from its initial Norman construction through to the 1866-70 restoration campaign.

The church comprises a three-stage west tower, a five-bay nave with clerestory, a south porch, a three-bay chancel with an attached north chapel, and a north aisle. The fabric is built in magnesian limestone ashlar, with a concealed roof to the nave, a stone roof to the south porch, and an asphalt roof to the chancel.

The Norman fabric dates to the mid-12th century and includes the nave, south door, chancel, and the lower stages of the tower. Mid-14th century work added alterations to the chancel and the belfry stage to the tower. The 15th century saw the construction of the south porch, clerestory, north chapel, and buttressing to the tower.

The three-stage west tower features stepped diagonal and angle buttresses. A 3-light window with Perpendicular tracery and hoodmould has been inserted into the first stage. Bands run across the first and second stages; the second stage is blind. Twin-light Perpendicular bell openings appear on each side of the upper stage, with battlements above.

The nave's gabled south porch has a plinth and a pointed arch with chamfered jambs beneath a hoodmould. Bands with gargoyles run below the embattled parapets on either side. The interior of the porch has a stone roof carried on four single-chamfered transverse pointed arches, with stone benches to either side. The south door is round-arched and plank-hung, set within a surround with chamfered jambs and imposts supporting a chamfered arch. Eroded single nook-shafts support eroded roll-moulding.

The south side of the nave contains two lancet windows and one 3-light pointed window with cinquefoil-headed lights, all beneath hoodmoulds. The north aisle has a plinth, diagonal and angle buttresses, with straight-headed 2-light windows featuring trefoil-headed lights to the side and a similar 3-light window to the west. The clerestory has four similar 2-light, straight-headed windows on each side, with a moulded parapet.

The chancel was largely rebuilt in the 19th century. A diagonal buttress appears on its south side, which also contains a blocked pointed priest's door in a chamfered surround and three lancet windows beneath hoodmoulds. The gable end has pinnacles with crocketed finials and chamfered coping. The east end features a 5-light window with reticulated-type tracery under a hoodmould.

The north chapel has a plinth and angle buttresses, with an inserted pointed priest's door. Its side walls contain 3-light, straight-headed Perpendicular windows. A low parapet runs around the east end, which has a 3-light window with Perpendicular tracery under a hoodmould.

Internally, the tower arch is triple-chamfered with plain imposts and moulded capitals on triple-chamfered responds beneath a hoodmould decorated with fleurons. Above this is a pointed niche with imposts. The nave arcade to the north aisle comprises five bays on alternate octagonal and cylindrical piers with double-chamfered pointed arches. A 19th-century pointed chancel arch on responds with foliate capitals supports roll-moulding.

Two arches connect the chancel to the north chapel, differing in width. The western arch, dating to around 1400, is double-chamfered on low octagonal piers beneath a hoodmould with monk-face stops. The eastern arch is later, narrower, and double-chamfered on octagonal responds. A 19th-century double-chamfered pointed arch links the north aisle to the chapel.

Interior furnishings include a trefoil piscina, a font with an octagonal base, square plinth, and octagonal top inscribed with the date 1663 and initials, and a wooden altar dated 1721. Monuments comprise a Serpent Stone of approximately 1350 with an eroded raised cross and carvings, and a 14th-century grave slab with an incised cross and sword.