Market Street, Edenfield
The history of Edenfield Parish Church is one that is not easy to determine. Its is thought that the church’s origins go back before the Reformation. At the time of the Reformation Edenfield, along with St Luke’s at Heywood and Holcombe church, was part of the large parish of Bury. At different times in its history the parish of Bury as been in the diocese of Chester, Lichfield and Manchester. It was during the time of being with Lichfield that the deeds and most of the early church records were lost in a fire and as a result the dedication of the church is not known, and so it is as "Edenfield Parish Church" that it is known today. The church that stands today as an inscription ‘GR III 1778’ and is regarded as a fairly unspoilt example of Georgian architecture, though parts of church tower date from 1614 and the church bell was made by John Scott of Wigan in 1654. Another feature of the tower is that it is twenty-three inches off the perpendicular. Edenfield became a parish in its own right in 1865 and the first vicar was The Rev Matthew Wilson who died in 1870. At the entrance to the churchyard is a Lych-gate which was erected to the memory of the Rev J P Yeo who was vicar of Edenfield from1870 to 1901.
