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Wednesday, 26 February 2020

Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk - St Edmund King & Martyr

I have a soft spot for St Edmund, open, having been confirmed here some 50 odd years ago and having also attended a wedding or two. I haven't visited in at least thirty years but was pleased to find I remembered the neo-classical building with its west gallery as if I'd dropped in on an old friend. Confusingly it's laid out on a north/south axis.

ST EDMUND (R.C.), Westgate Street. 1837 by Charles Day. Grecian. Stone-faced facade. Three bays with projecting centre. Two tall fluted Ionic columns in antis. The interior remodelled 1877. Coved ceiling, the coving partly glazed. Sanctuary short behind a screen of two Ionic columns. Concealed skylight. The two grand altar surrounds are doorcases recently taken over from Rushbrooke Hall. Their date is c. 1735. The surround to the main entrance was once a marble fireplace, also from Rushbrooke Hall.* It may be a composite piece: the supports Dutch mid C17, the frieze probably slightly earlier, Tuscan (?), with emblems of the Farnese and della Rovere families. The doors enclosed by it belong to the altar surrounds. - (SCULPTURE. God the Father, polychrome, attributed to Ignaz Gunther.) - PAINTING. Martyrdom of St Edmund. By Delafosse.

* I owe this information, and the following comments, to Father B Houghton.

St Edmund King & Martyr (2)

Charles Petre 1854

Recycled fireplace from Rushbrooke Hall (6)

Mee doesn't mention it.

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