|
St Edmund's Church (in full, The Church of St Edmund King and Martyr) is the Roman Catholic parish church of Godalming, a town in the English county of Surrey. It was built in 1906 to the design of Frederick Walters and is a Grade II listed building.〔 The church stands on a "dramatic hillside site"〔 on the corner of Croft Road just off Flambard Way close to the centre of the town. The Catholic Church had no presence in the ancient town of Godalming—known for its Protestant Nonconformity—until the end of the 19th century, and the parish of St Edmund's has always covered a large rural area of southwest Surrey. Since the church was founded in 1899 Mass has also been said at various other locations, from purpose-built churches to converted barns and halls, in the surrounding villages; and St Edmund's continues to support a daughter church at nearby Milford. Hospitals, convents and Catholic schools are also within the parish, and a large Polish community has been served by Polish-speaking priests for many years. The "fine, if austere" church〔 is built of local stone and overlooks the town. It is one of several churches in the area designed by the prolific architect Frederick Walters. The interior decoration dates from various times in the 20th century and includes rare bas-relief Stations of the Cross, an ornate Lady chapel and stained glass by Hardman & Co.. ==Early Catholicism in Godalming== After the English Reformation, the Catholic faith almost died out in Surrey. In 1588, one recusant was recorded in Godalming—an ancient, principally industrial town in the west of the county—and another lived nearby in Thursley, but a survey by Sir William More three years later found none. Moreover, by the 17th century Godalming was "a hotbed of radical Protestant Nonconformity". Until the 19th century, the only Catholic worship in the west of Surrey took place at the Sutton Place estate, owned by a Catholic family (a chapel in the house was succeeded by a church in 1876), and at a private chapel in Westbrook House, Godalming—home of the Oglethorpe family, where Theophilus Oglethorpe was Protestant but his wife Eleanor Oglethorpe and their daughters were Catholic. A Mass centre—sources differ on whether it was a temporary chapel or merely part of a house—was founded in central Guildford in 1792 and was served by émigré priests from France, but it disappeared in or soon after 1801, after which Sutton Place resumed its role as "the rendezvous for Surrey Catholics". The Catholic population of Godalming grew during the 19th century. By 1860, when priests from Sutton Place founded and built a new Catholic church in Guildford,〔 about 60 residents travelled there every Sunday for Mass.〔 This arrangement continued for the rest of the century, but in 1899 Captain W.H. Rushbrooke of Bowlhead Green, a nearby hamlet, bought a site in Croft Road and arranged for a tin tabernacle to be erected. This was opened on 26 November 1899 by Bishop of Southwark Francis Bourne and was dedicated to Edmund the Martyr, 9th-century king of East Anglia, because Rushbrooke was from Suffolk where Edmund lived and was buried. Rushbrooke, described on this death in 1926 as "a very faithful supporter ... and a great benefactor () the Catholic Church", also built a chapel at his home and funded the permanent church in Guildford and the first church in Farnham.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「St Edmund Church, Godalming」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|