The recent blogs on St. Edmund’s church, Downham Market, Norfolk example my take on church studies generally. Like History itself church studies has many ‘compartments’ each of which can involve a lifetime’s study, for example Modern, Medieval, Classical, social and economic, political, history of science, history of theatre, African, American, South-East Asian etc. etc. In […]

The dedication of Downham Market church is to St. Edmund. According to Linnell, Rev. C.L.S. Norfolk Church Dedications (St. Anthony’s Press, York, 1962) this dedication comes ninth in the rank order of Norfolk church dedications, the county’s churches having a total of 21 with this dedication (top of the rank order, as across most of the country,

Traditionally the royal arms were supported by a lion ‘rampant’ and a unicorn ‘rampant’, the former representing England, the latter Scotland (the above picture of a Queen Anne royal arms at Anwick church, Lincs. is taken from Alexander, J.S. andBryant, G. Royal Arms in Lincs. Churches (Barton W.E.A., 1990, 21). The shield, which sometimes changed with the

Despite my comments about St. Edmund’s church, Downham Market in the previous blog I have to admit that I have never been inside. Ely and Norwich diocese are much better at encouraging parochial church councils to make arrangements for the access into churches than they use to be, often with a nominated key-keeper living nearby with

The town of Downham Market stands astride the scarp slope of the East Anglian Heights (as does Caistor in Lincolnshire) with St Edmund’s church sited at the highest point. As the scarp slope overlooks the level Fens to the west as far as the eye can see the church forms a prominent landmark and, even without

With being brought-up in south-west Norfolk, in and around the village of Boughton seven miles east of Downham Market (see above map) and with often cycling around that area I suppose I became faintly ‘landscape aware’ at an early age. The above map taken from The Norfolk Landscape (s.p.b.), p. 29 shows that the immediate