There has been a Church on this site since before 869. The current building is in Perpendicular style. there is a chancel, a nave, a south aisle and a square tower there is also a vestry with a very tall chimney, This is one of the smallest medieval churches in Norwich and dates from the sixteenth century although The south aisle, was built in 1463.
In 1913 it was surrounded on three sides by a factory fire yet it remained undamaged, after that the Church stood in an area of wasteland. During the second world war, St. Edmund's sustained some damage from air raids. It later came under the care of Norwich Historic Churches Trust. From 1999 to 2011 it was used as a counselling and resource centre for Norwich Pregnancy Crisis Centre which. From 2007 it was also used as a place of worship by the Gateway Vineyard church and in January 2011 the lease of was taken over and it is now a House of Prayer for Norwich and Norfolk, registered with The Prayer Forum.
When viewed from near the ticket machine of St. Saviour's pay and display car park and towards St. Edmund's you can line the tower up with the Cathedral spire and it as if this humble church has an elaborate spire. The tower, that was repaired in 1676, is supported by huge diagonal buttresses,the size of which suggests that they were going to support a much taller tower.
The earliest decoration in the Church is in a, slightly damaged, painted boss which dates from the medieval times. It is in the centre of the nave roof and shows the arms of St. Edmund flanked on either side by that of St. George and the arms of the Cathedral Priory above it. There was a forth shield but that is no longer there likewise part of the wording is missing. There is little left of the internal Gothic furnishings the work of architect Edward Boardman dating from 1882. He also added the vestry during that year. One 18th century item remains a semi-circular pediment of the reredos fixed to the vestry wall. The altar its self did not stand at the chancel but at the east end of the aisle at the chapel of the Blessed Virgin, which was built in 1463, by Alderman Robert Furbisher, who is buried under the floor and in 1466, Margaret his widow joined him. The arcade which joins the aisle to the main body of the church is unusual, in so much as, the piercings vary in both height and width and there are a number of niches which conceivably one held statues.
There is a monument for Charles Maltby junior a surgeon of some repute who lived and worked in the nearby parish of St. George Tombland. In 1746 Maltby was appointed Surgeon to the Doughty‘s Hospital. The records show that he was quite benevolent in that in 1767 he gifted one hundred guineas to this hospital. In 1771. He was one of a team appointed to the new Norfolk and Norwich Hospital where he served until his death in 1790. He also gave the clock and bell to St. George's church.
Other parishioners and benefactors of this parish include include Mayor Samuel Bignold who,in 1833, with others formed the Norwich Yarn Company. Within six years they built three steam powered factories, the first of which was in an orchard beside St. Edmund's. The building that housed the third factory they raised still stands some way to the East of the church and is part of the former Jarrolds Printing works.
A Puritan by the name Thomas Allen also from this parish emigrated to New England in 1638 seeking religious tolerance. There he met and married Ann, maiden name Sadler, (1614–55) widow of John Harvard, the founder of Harvard collage.
Congratulations Tony Tats on First to find “If anybody would like to expand to this series please do, I would just ask that you could let Sadexploration know first so he can keep track of the Church numbers and names to avoid duplication. There is also a Church Micro Stats page found via the Bookmark list”