Blunham
St. James or St. Edmund

Places > Blunham > Churches

The earliest part of the church is the base of the tower dating to c.1100,the nave and aisles date to the fifteenth century. In the churchyard there is a mausoleum for the Thornton family of Moggerhanger built in 1805.

John Donne, the poet (born 1572), was incumbent of this church in the seventeenth century but there is little evidence that he ever spent much time here, as he was already the Dean of St. Paul's. His most well known lines are "No man is an iland intire of its selfe... and therefore send not to know for whom the bell tolls- it tolls for thee.

Sources

• Bedfordshire churches in the nineteenth century, part 1, parishes A-G edited by Chris Pickford (BHRS, Vo. 73, 1994)

• Bedfordshire by James Dyer (Shire Publications, 1995)

Further Reading:

• Victoria County History of Bedfordshire

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Page last updated: 23rd January 2014