The following brief history of St Edmunds is taken from a pamphlet which was produced in the early seventies, possibly 1972, as the price was 1'6 (7.5np).
WELCOME to St. Edmund's! It may surprise the visitor to learn that the present church building was opened as recently as 1954. It will be less surprising to learn that the ground on which this building stands was once the site of an ancient religious house.
The chantry or free chapel of "Ancres juxta pontem", Doncaster, stood, as far as is known, at the junction of Sprotbrough Road and York Road near the garage owned by Messrs. Kennings Ltd. The evidence is the discovery, in January 1948, of a stone incised with a 'calvary' or steps leading to a cross which suggested to the experts that it has formed part of a grave cover within the walls of a sacred building This stone may be seen in the Doncaster Museum. The chapel was endowed with a manse for a cantarist, which probably stood on the site of the present church, with an orchard and with a meadow known as Ancresse Ings, realising an annual income of approximately £9. The foundation charter has not survived, but records establish that a charter was granted to Sir Thomas Fitzwilliam of Sprotbrough about the year 1272 authorising him to establish a hospital for the reception and entertainment of pilgrims, travellers and strangers.
The hospital-served the needs of wayfarers and was administered by holy women, anchoresses, who devoted their lives to prayer and meditation as well as to the care of the needy. We know the names of two of them, Anabel and Helen de Lisle. The hospital continued its duty until the dissolution of the chantry chapels in 1547. We do not know what happened to the occupants of the house. We have to wait until the mid-19th century, before the Poll Book of '384T tells us that a John Jenkinson was tenant of Anchorage Farm at a yearly rent .of £50. Four years earlier the Gazette Directory .confirmed that a medieval hospital had. stood on the site of Anchorage Farm, that it had been founded by Sir Thomas Fitzwilliam before 1363 and that it had been valued at £9.13.4d. at the dissolution. Thus the hospital had become a farm. The present barn was probably built from the stones of the hospital and of Ancres House and we can date the building as 17th century with some confidence.
The farm flourished until the second world war when the War Office took it over. After the war these farm and military buildings were occupied for a time by squatters and later fell into disrepair. In 1952 the Diocese of Sheffield bought the site.
The Bishop of the Diocese dedicated the Centre to St. Edmund on 27th February, 1954, The eastern part of the parish of Sprotbrough was transferred to the ancient parish of Doncaster. The Vicar of Doncaster and Parochial Church Council of Doncaster Parish Church then took up the task of building a daughter church to serve this addition to the parish. The .project owed much to the vision and energy of the then vicar, Canon H, G. G. Herklots, of Major C. E. Farran, vice-chairman of the Parochial Church Council and of Mr. G. G. Pace, the diocesan architect. The decaying farm buildings were cleared, the barn renovated and turned into the present church centre. In 1963 an extension room and a vestry were added. In 1969 a gallery was erected in the church to receive a two-manual pipe organ. The organ came from St. Andrew's, Marshgate, another daughter church the parish demolished in December 1969
St. Edmund's is both young in years and young in heart. It is a forward looking church in a growing community, but it is no bad thing to be reminded from time to time of its close association with the past. The fact that the building is a church centre means that worship and social activities are welded together under the same roof, perpetuating the memory of the ancient hospice that stood here long ago. The present day St. Edmund's is proving as effective a 'hospital' as did its famous predecessor. A hospital in the medieval sense meant a place of hospitality, a place where the stranger could find a welcome, a place where a Christian family could gather at the table of their Lord and perhaps most important of all a place where the Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, was proclaimed week by week. In the words of Canon Herklots, "we have come back to a religious situation, and offer our praise, our worship and our service to God in company with the recluses, Anabel and Helen, the hospitallers, chaplains and clerks who long ago gave voice to their love of God in this place and continue to do so in another dimension . . "
0 how amiable are thy dwellings:
thou Lord of hosts !
My soul hath a desire, and longing to enter into the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh rejoice in the living ;God.
Yea, the-sparrow hath found her an house, and the swallow a nest where she may lay her young
even thy altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.
Blessed are they that dwell in thy house:
they will be always praising thee.
Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee : in whose heart are thy ways.
Quam dilecta !
m J Jackson Anthony Stratford
Vicar Curate in charge
St Edmund's 1954-2009