St Edmund King & Martyr, Southwold

St Edmund is a Grade I Perpendicular parish church on Church Green in Southwold, Suffolk, in the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich. Historic England dates the present building to about 1430–70.

Overview

The listing describes a flint church with ashlar dressings and copper roofs: a four-stage west tower, continuous nave and chancel with clerestory to both and a lantern fleche to the nave, east-end aisle chapels, and a two-storey south porch. The tower has flushwork diagonal buttresses, quatrefoil flushwork parapet, an arched west door with flushwork panels and a frieze of shields, and a three-light Perpendicular west window whose arch bears flushwork lettering SCT EDMUND ORA P NOBIS. The south porch has a polygonal stair turret, chequer flushwork, and a vault.

Roofs were restored in 1857 by E. L. Blackburne and in 1866–67 by R. M. Phipson; the chancel was restored in 1885, with parclose screens by A. E. Street. The church replaced a smaller thirteenth-century building destroyed by fire and was rebuilt as Southwold grew from a fishing hamlet. It is noted for extensive flint flushwork, medieval screens, and the mechanical figure known as Southwold Jack. A 1971 engraved window by John Hutton in the north chancel depicts the martyrdom of St Edmund.

Further Information

• Historic England list entry 1384321
• British Listed Buildings: Church of St Edmund