St Edmund
Rochdale, Lancashire
Regarded as one of the finest but least known gems of ecclesiastical architecture in the country, it is a Gothic gem set in a diamond.
Today's church, designed by eminent church architect Sir Ninian Comper, was opened in 1911 and is described as ‘a place rich in Comperisms’.
Baum (Rochdale dialect for 'balm') refers to the wild flowers which grew in the meadows where the church was built, various thought to be Lemon Balm (Melissa Officinalis) or White Mint.
The church has sometimes wrongly been called ‘St Mary, the Baum’ as if some attribute of Our Lady. Strangely, it was also been wrongly referred to as 'St Mary le Baum' a rare instance of Franglais from the Lancashire mill town.