The parish church of St Edmund has been in constant use for over 950 years. The church stands in the south-east corner and within the walls of the Roman Town of Venta Icenorum, which went out of use some 750 years earlier. There are two possible reasons why the church was built here. Firstly it may have been rebuilt on the site of an earlier church found here. A second possibility is that the present church was built by the owner of an Anglo-Saxon manor house which may have stood in or near the abandoned Roman town. Certainly a church stood here in the reign of King Edward the Confessor (AD 1042-1066). He gave the manor and the church at Caistor to the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds which probably accounts for the dedication of the church and the village to St Edmund.

The earliest part of the church is the nave and is over 950 years old. Its south-west corner at the rear of the building is made from red tiles robbed from the walls of the Roman town. The original round-headed windows of the nave have been blocked up and replaced over the centuries and are no longer visible.

Changing fashions and the needs of the religous community have resulted in several alterations to the building. The photograph to the left shows how the Church you see today has been built up over the centuries.

To find out more about our church follow these links: