In the last few centuries, the history of religious faith in Southwold has been punctuated by disputes.

Quaker George Fox was attacked by a mob in St Edmund’s Church in 1659. The Town Preacher, Mr Woodward, found himself evicted from town in 1662 at the end of the Civil War. An Independent Congregation broke away from St Edmund’s Church in 1682. After leading an open-air service in Southwold, a Methodist preacher ended up in the stocks in 1778.

More recently, in 1852, St Edmund’s Vicar, the Reverend Rous Birch, became involved in a bitter dispute with the Mayor, who was also a churchwarden, over the replacement of box pews by open benches . The Wesleyan Methodist Church, was split by a secession in 1885.

However, the most controversial of all the conflicts, from today’s standpoint, was the destructive visit by William Dowsing to St Edmund’s Church in 1644 – and, the most puzzling, the truth about the breakaway in 1682. Find out about them by clicking the links.