St Edmund, Halesworth

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Halesworth is a lovely town, the main street pedestrianised and lined with independent shops. A disastrous fire destroyed a number of buildings on the old market square in the early years of the 21st Century, but they are now being restored. Catholic priests ministered to this parish from its grand church of St Mary before the Reformation, but that is now in the care of the Church of England and today's Catholic shepherds tend their flock in a humble little hall of a church in the shadow of their former home.

This church is a Mass centre of the large parish of Southwold, and was built as recently as 1950. It is perhaps unfortunate that so many of Suffolk's Catholic churches were built in the decade or so before Vatican II, for if they had come afterwards they might have been more adventurous. Be that as it may, we have here a simple, functional building, approached from the west through a flint-fronted porch which I think may have been added later. This touch gives it a likeable character all of its own.