Roman Catholic Church of St. Edmund

Details

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TM 3389
638/1/10000

BUNGAY
ST MARY'S STREET
Roman Catholic Church of St. Edmund

GV
II*

Roman Catholic Church. 1889-1901. By Bernard Smith for the English Benedictine Congregation. Patron Frederic Smith. Red brick with Bath stone dressings and plain Broseley tile roof. Decorated and Perpendicular styles. Chancel, with 1889 priest’s sacristy across east end and 1891 boys’ sacristy and boiler house on the north etc., nave, north aisle Lady Chapel and octagonal baptistery.

EXTERIOR. Chancel a three-window range of two-light windows and nave a four-window range of three-light windows with buttresses between. West end projects forward by one window but blank front has elaborate carved frontespiece around the square-framed west door by Ovens of Norwich depicting Saints Gregory and Augustine and scenes from life of St.Edmund in arched niches. In the crocketed gable with pinnacles is a large roundel with an enthroned St.Edmund. Baptistery has flying buttresses, narrow windows, corbelled battlemented parapet and tall green copper conical roof rising to a finial.

INTERIOR. Chancel has stained glass east window by Hardman and Co containing portraits of Frederic Smith’s parents as donor figures in the bottom corners. Chancel has wood panelling and a very fine and elaborate reredos of panels of angels in Caen stone, all by AB Wall of Cheltenham. South stained glass windows by Bourne and north windows by W.B.Simpson & Sons. Chancel roof is arch braced with mahogany angels and a traceried frieze. Nave has complete set of stained glass by Lavers, Barraud and Westlake and carved panelling to the walls including high relief Stations of the Cross by Daymond and Boulton of Cheltenham. Statues in niches on nave east wall also by Boulton. The chancel arch is flanked by statues of the Sacred Heart and St.Joseph under large niche canopies. The nave roof has beams and a plaster infill in a chequer pattern. Complete set of pews run uninterrupted across width of nave. The founder’s memorial is on the south nave wall in Roman with mosaic and marble. There is a fine woodblock floor by Roger Lowe of Farnworth, Bolton. A two-bay arcade of clustered shaft pier and responds leads to north aisle Lady Chapel with similar glass and stone reredos in high relief of the Assumption of the Virgin by Boulton. West end of nave has gallery partly over entrance vestibule and contains organ by Norman and Beard of Norwich. The elaborate baptistery with star vault leads off the Lady Chapel through iron gates and has blind arcading with marble columns, patterned stained glass and fan vaulted roof. Octagonal font in various marbles, mainly alabaster, and richly carved font cover.

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. A presbytery was added in 1829 next to the street. In 1888 Frederic Smith, a local solicitor, offered a new chancel and sacristy in memory of his parents and this was completed in 1889. He then offered the nave which was built round the old chapel and was restricted in its size by the existing presbytery and surrounding graveyard. The old chapel was then demolished and the new church opened in 1891. The decision was then taken to rebuild the presbytery (qv) to the SE of the church and linked to it and this was completed in 1894. 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. The church displays both inside and out high quality and rich decoration, and with the presbytery, the Church of St Mary (including the ruins of the Benedictine Convent) (qv) forms a very significant group in the centre of Bungay.

Bibliography: Mission and Church of St.Edmund, King and Martyr, Bungay. By a Monk of St.Gregory's Abbey, Downside [Dom Francis Flemming]. 1899.

Listing NGR: TM3369589680

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

469128

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Mission and Church of St. Edmund King and Martyr, (1899)

End of official list entry

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