Church of St Edmund (EHER 3175)

Parish Church originating in the 13th century with later additions. 13th century Nave and Chancel, 14th century North Porch. 19th century West Tower and east wall rebuilt. 19th century South Chapel and aisle, 19th and 20th century restorations. It is constructed from plastered stone and flint rubble walls, stone and flint flushwork facing to west tower, south chapel and aisle. It has red plain tiled roofs.

St Edmund's Church is the parish church standing in the middle of the parish. The walls are of stone and flint rubble, largely covered with plaster; the dressings are of limestone and the roofs are tiled. The chancel was built about mid 13th century. The nave was rebuilt probably around 1300, and the timber-framed north porch (RCHM has a photo of this) and a bell-turret added around the mid 14th century. The church has been drastically restored in modern times when the south chapel and aisle and the west tower were added, and the east wall rebuilt. Features and fittings include: windows of 13th century and around 1300. The north doorway splays are 14th century; the south doorway is 14th century; the nave roof has one 14th century hammerbeam truss above the two doorways, springing from timber arches over the doorways (RCHM has photo of this truss); the north porch roof is 14th century; early 16th century font; 14th century glass in NE window in nave; 13th century piscina in chancel; remains of window jambs and mullions etc in rectory garden. <2> <3> <4> The truss over the doorways has had the centre removed from the tie beam to form hammer beams. <5> Illustration of door surrounds in <6> Site Assessment "The interest of the church is wholly the one extremely unusual hammerbeam roof truss close to the west end. It stands just above the north and south doorways, and so the ingenious carpenter framed these by posts, then connected them by a gable and from these gables started his braces for the hammerbeam. The tracery detail of the gables is clearly of the 14th century, and not too late in the century either, and thus this truss, as far as one can say, is earlier than the hammerbeam roof of Westminster Hall, in the textbooks still called the earliest in existence" <3> However little of the ancient fabric has been left by drastic restoration, and that is covered externally by rendering. Watching brief, 1994 In 1994, ground level on the north side of the church was lowered by about 200-250mm, and the render cut off to a height of about 500-600mm. The base of the walls was shown to be built of septaria, though typically, the picture varies from one part of the fabric to another. At the eastern end of the nave, a dwarf wall was found parallel to the church wall and separated from it by only 60mm. The most obvious explanation of the feature is that it represents the remains of an earlier phase of the nave wall. The dwarf wall looks as if it has been cut through by the church wall, and its distinctive mortar is typically 11th-12th century. The watching brief confirmed the rebuilding chronology. <7> Information from NRHE St Edmund's Church (C of E) [NAT] <8> ECC Historic Buildings Photo Print Archive <9>