St. Edmund King & Martyr

Introduction

Saint Edmund King & Martyr in Bungay, in the Diocese of East Anglia, was built between 1889 and 1901 by Bernard Smith for the English Benedictine Congregation, with Frederic Smith as patron.

History

A chapel was built on this site in 1823 near to the parish church and to the remains of the pre-reformation Benedictine nunnery. In 1888 Frederic Smith, a local solicitor, offered a new chancel and sacristy in memory of his parents, completed in 1889. The nave was built round the old chapel, which was then demolished, and the new church opened in 1891. The baptistery was added to the north west corner of the church 1899-1901. The cost of chancel, nave and presbytery was about £14,000, the whole amount paid by the patron.

Architecture and furnishings

The church is built of red brick with Bath stone dressings and plain Broseley tile roof, in Decorated and Perpendicular styles. The church comprises chancel, nave, north aisle Lady Chapel and octagonal baptistery. The chancel has stained glass east window by Hardman and Co containing portraits of Frederic Smith’s parents as donor figures. The chancel has a very fine and elaborate reredos of panels of angels in Caen stone, all by AB Wall of Cheltenham.

The nave has a complete set of stained glass by Lavers, Barraud and Westlake and carved panelling including high relief Stations of the Cross by Daymond and Boulton of Cheltenham. The founder’s memorial is on the south nave wall in Roman with mosaic and marble. The organ in the west gallery is by Norman and Beard of Norwich. The baptistery has a star vault, blind arcading with marble columns, patterned stained glass and fan vaulted roof.

The octagonal font is in various marbles, mainly alabaster, with richly carved font cover. The church is Grade II* listed, first listed on 05-Mar-1998. The baptistery has flying buttresses, narrow windows, a corbelled battlemented parapet, and a tall green copper conical roof rising to a finial. The nave roof has beams and a plaster infill in a chequer pattern.

A complete set of pews runs uninterrupted across the width of the nave. The chancel has south stained glass windows by Bourne and north windows by W.B.Simpson & Sons. The chancel roof is arch braced with mahogany angels and a traceried frieze. Statues in niches on the nave east wall are also by Boulton.

There is a fine woodblock floor by Roger Lowe of Farnworth, Bolton. A two-bay arcade of clustered shaft pier and responds leads to the north aisle Lady Chapel with similar glass and stone reredos in high relief of the Assumption of the Virgin by Boulton.