| Description | The collection includes parish registers, records of the Incumbent, Churchwardens, Vestry, Parochial Church Council, Charities, Schools, Antiquarian and printed material relating to the parish. |
| AdminHistory | Locally known as Bottom Church, St Edmund's stands close to the foot of Castle Hill in the centre of Dudley and is one of the town's two medieval churches, alongside St Thomas's. It's dedication to the ninth century King of England suggests and Anglo-Saxon foundation, yet the first mention of the church is not found until 1180 where a charter of Gervase Paganel includes the endowments of the churches of St Edmund and St Thomas in a gift to the Cluniac Priory of St James which he had founded. This gift was confirmed by a Papal Bull issued two years later by Pope Lucius III and remained in force until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1540 (see also the Dudley Estate Archive).
A claim of William Cantelupe, Bishop of Worcester, that both the castle and priory should be within his diocese in 1282 led to the priory and town becoming the subject of Papal Arbitration. The Pope agreed to a compromise, with the castle and priory becoming part of the diocese of Staffordshire whilst the town and its churches became part of the diocese of Worcestershire (taken from 'A short guide and history, nd, (LD 283P).
The church itself was heavily rebuilt during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries meaning that little is known of the appearance of the medieval building, yet suggestions have been made that it was originally much larger. An incident during the Civil War saw St Edmund's demolished in 1646 by Colonel Thomas Leveson, the Royalist governor of Dudley castle, in an attempt to prevent its use as a shelter by Parliamentarians when the castle was put under siege. The only remnants of the earlier church to survive are a simple memorial tablet to Frances Beaumont from 1644 and the grave of Lady Honor Dudley, which is now marked by a brass plaque.
St Thomas's was to act as parish church whilst St Edmund's remained in ruin, holding services between 1646 and 1724 whilst the present church was erected. The architect is believed to be Thomas Archer, whose work in the region also includes St Philip's cathedral in Birmingham. St Edmund's remained a chapel of ease to St Thomas's until it regained its status of parish church once again in 1844 (taken from 'Churches of the Black Country' by Tim Bridges, ( LD 283).
This collection is available on the Access to Archives website. It was previously referenced PR/Du(E) and can be found on the A2A website under this reference number. This has been altered to PR12 during the re-cataloguing of the collection in 2011. A few of the individual document reference numbers have also slightly changed.
This collection has been arranged and catalogued in line with the Church of England New Model Classification scheme, to which a few minor alterations have been made to accommodate the collections held at Dudley Archives and Local History Service. A copy of this scheme can be found in the searchroom. |