I stumbled across St Edward’s Church while going on an early walk around the city; as best I could tell the church wasn’t actually open to go inside at the time. The church is named for Edward the Martyr a 10th century king of England and half-brother of his successor, Aethelred the Unready. Supposedly Edward, who became king in 975 when he was just 13 was murdered by his step-mother in favour of Aethelread and as such became a martyr.
The present building dates from 1400 and has a stained glass window designed by Sir Gilbert Scott. It’s here that apparently the first openly evangelical sermon was given in an English church, where the Catholic Church was accused of heresy. As such it became something of a hotspot for reformers and gained the nickname “the Cradle of the Reformation”.
As I couldn’t go inside I just wandered around the small and slightly scruffy outside with its mostly flat gravestones.
An interesting little building it’s also worth noting it’s next to a lovely looking secondhand book store that I’d wished I’d had more time to fully explore.
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