The Lives of Ss. Edmund and Fremund: Introduction

The Canon of John Lydgate Project

The Lives of Ss. Edmund and Fremund: Introduction

The Village of Lidgate

[Picture of
Lidgate church and Lidgate Hall]

Lidgate, or Lydgate, Suffolk (National Grid reference: TL7258), is a village on the B1063, seven miles SE of Newmarket.

Suffolk House, a large, sixteenth-century, half-timbered building on the street through the village, is traditionally thought to stand on the site of John Lydgate's birthplace.

St. Mary's Church is mostly of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and it stands within the remains of the bailey of the medieval castle (only small fragments of castle walls remain on the north side of the church).

The interior of the Church of St. Mary's, Lidgate.

On the floor of the choir, just before the modern altar rail (and now covered by carpet), is a small brass (about 20 inches in length) representing a medieval priest in Eucharistic vestments; the brass, originally part of a much larger memorial, is said to be mid-fifteenth century in date (though the upper portion of the head, which was lost for many years, was replaced in 1910) and is thought to mark the grave of John Lydgate (it is much more likely, however, that he was buried in his Abbey of Bury St. Edmunds).

Back to "The Poet: John Lydgate"

The Canon of John Lydgate Project

email: Stephen.Reimer@UAlberta.Ca
URL: http://www.ualberta.ca/~sreimer/lydgate.htm/