• 1. St Mary Magdalene, Ickleton, Cambridgeshire, England
    Exterior general view from SE
    Parish church
    Architecturally, Ickleton is one of the most important Romanesque churches in the county. It was originally a cruciform church of c.1100 with aisleless chancel, aisled four-bay nave with clerestory, transepts and a central tower. The S aisle was widened (14thc.) to the width of the transept, and a chapel added to the N side of the chancel (15thc.), which was later removed although its entrance arch remains. The N transept has since been shortened to the width of the aisle. The original nave clerestory was very low, with windows above the apex of each arch. When the aisle roofs were raised, new windows were added at a higher level, but five rather than four, so that the clerestory is out of phase with the arcade. The chancel was rebuilt in the later Middle Ages, and again in 1882. The upper storey of the tower is 14-15thc., and it has a lead broach spire and a Sanctus bell. The church is constructed of flint and Sarsen pebbles. Restoration work following a deliberate fire in 1979 resulted in the discovery of a celebrated cycle of wall paintings from the 2nd half of the 12thc. decorates the N wall of the nave. Sculpture described here comprises the nave arcades, W crossing arch and W doorway.
  • 2. St Andrew, Impington, Cambridgeshire, England
    Exterior, view from SE.
    Parish church
    Aisleless nave, 14thc. chancel articulated on the interior with wide arches enclosing the windows, 14thc. W tower. Construction is of mixed stone and pebble rubble except for the timber-framed Perpendicular S porch. There was a restoration in 1878–79, then in 1995 a large church hall complex was added to the N side, attached to the N chancel vestry. 12thc. stones are found reset in the exterior S wall of the chancel.
  • 3. Isleham Priory, Cambridgeshire, England
    Exterior, general view from NE.
    Alien Priory Church, now English Heritage
    A simple three-cell building of nave, chancel and semicircular apse without tower or belfry. There is a chancel arch and the remains of an apse arch. Construction is of herringbone and rubble masonry with brick repairs. The nave has been heightened, and the upper levels are of small, uneven ashlar blocks. Brick buttresses have been added to the N side of the nave, and a large brick doorway on the S must date from its conversion to a barn.
  • 4. St Nicholas, Kennett, Cambridgeshire, England
    Exterior, general view from NE.
    Parish church
    Nave with N aisle, aisleless 13thc. chancel with an added N vestry and Perpendicular W tower, all in flint and pebble rubble. The N nave arcade looks 14thc., but the aisle wall itself is c.1200 (windows), so the present arcade must replace an earlier aisled arrangement. The late-12thc. N doorway is protected by a porch.
  • 5. All Saints, Kirtling, Cambridgeshire, England
    Exterior, general view from SW.
    Parish church
    12thc. nave with later aisles. The nave is six bays long, and on the N side the Perpendicular arcade is indeed of six bays. The S aisle, raised above the level of the nave, is largely of c.1200 with chamfered round-headed arches and moulded capitals, but the arcade is only four bays long on the inside (bay 4 is Perpendicular). On the outside the aisle is seen to continue westwards for a fifth bay, which acts as a porch for the 12thc. S doorway. This still leaves one unaisled bay, and in this is a small, round-headed, 12thc. window. The chancel has a brick S chapel of c.1500, the North Chapel, built by the first Baron North who died in 1564, and whose tomb it houses. The W tower is Perpendicular, along with the clerestorey of the nave, and it is clear that a major remodelling took place around 1500. Apart from the North Chapel the construction is of flint and pebble with a good deal of render.
  • 6. St Peter and St Paul, Little Gransden, Cambridgeshire, England
    Exterior, general view from SW.
    Parish church
    Nave and aisles of the 13thc. with Perpendicular clerestorey and doorways to N and S, the former with a porch. Aisleless chancel with N vestry, and a tall Perpendicular W tower without a spire. Construction is of rough ashlar rubble and pebbles. The chancel was restored in 1858 and 1875, and in 1885–88 J. P. St Aubyn restored the entire church. As Pevsner comments, "the church looks almost entirely — except for the Perp W tower — as if it had been rebuilt". In the S wall of the tower are two reset chevron voussoirs.
  • 7. St Mary, Little Abington, Cambridgeshire, England
    Exterior general view from SW
    Parish church
    11–12thc. aisleless nave and W tower with 13thc. chancel. A N transept was also added in the 13thc., partially obscuring an earlier window. Most of the tower is 14thc., along with the tower arch. There is no spire. Construction is of flint and pebble, the prominently pointed Victorian restorations being particularly noticeable here. There was a restoration in 1885 by J. P. St Aubyn, and a complete restoration of the exterior of the tower c.1990. Features recorded are the N and S nave doorways, N nave window and font.
  • 8. St Nicholas, Little Chishill, Cambridgeshire, England
    Exterior from SE.
    Parish church
    The church, largely of flint, stands on a substantial mound, and consists of an aisleless nave with S porch; a 12thc. chancel of clunch rubble lengthened in the 16thc.; and a short two-storey W tower with a pyramid roof. There is a 12thc. window in the N wall of the chancel.
  • 9. St Leonard, Little Downham, Cambridgeshire, England
    Exterior from S.
    Parish church
    Five-bay aisled nave with clerestorey and S doorway under a 15thc. porch, aisleless chancel with N vestry of 1900, W tower. The earliest parts are 12thc. (the lower storey of the tower). For the rest, the elaborate S doorway is early 13thc. in its structure but 12thc. in its decorative repertoire. This is described below, but such other early 13thc. features as the tower arch and nave arcades fall outside the scope of the CRSBI. The church is of mixed flint, pebble and stone, except for the N aisle, of brick, which was restored in 1912. Other restorations took place in 1897 and 1899.
  • 10. St Mary Magdalene, Madingley, Cambridgeshire, England
    Exterior, view from SE.
    Parish church
    Extremely tall, five-bay nave with clerestorey, N aisle and N and S porches. Much lower aisleless chancel and W tower with octagonal stone spire. The original (lower) nave and the chancel date from c.1300 and the aisle and tower from the early 14thc. The clerestorey windows are Perpendicular, so the heightening of the nave presumably dates from this time, but the exterior treatment makes it difficult to be sure. The chancel and tower are constructed of pebble rubble, the nave of stone rubble laid disturbingly like crazy paving. The S side of the nave is mortar rendered. Inside, the piers of the N arcade are of Barnack stone and the arches of local clunch. There was a restoration in 1872-74 by J. Morley and J. Christian, and in 1926 the spire, having become unsafe, was taken down along with the topmost storey of the tower. Rebuilding was completed in the following year. The only 12thc. feature is the font.
  • 11. St Wendreda, March, Cambridgeshire, England
    Exterior from SE.
    Parish church
    An extremely satisfying late medieval church set on a large open green to the S of the town. It consists of an aisled nave, the N arcade early 14thc., the S slightly later; a chancel by W. Smith (1843); and a 14thc. W tower with an octagonal stone spire. The 14thc. work is dated by a Papal indulgence of 1343, but the church was considerably modified in the early 16thc. This work includes the clerestorey, rebuilding of the aisles, and S porch bearing the date 1528. The most celebrated aspect of the Perpendicular remodelling is, of course, the double hammerbeam roof with three tiers of angels. Construction is of mixed stone rubble but the 16thc. parts include flint and flushwork. The re-cut 12thc. font must, therefore, come from an earlier building.
  • 12. All Saints, Melbourn, Cambridgeshire, England
    Exterior general view from S
    Parish church
    Substantially a 13thc. church with five-bay aisled nave, aisleless chancel, and W tower. 14thc. S transept or chapel added, then a major rebuilding c.1500 when the tower was entirely replaced and fitted with a spike, and many of the windows were renewed. The S porch dates from this period too. There was a restoration in 1883, which included the replacement of the N aisle windows. Construction is of flint and pebble with ashlar facings. There is some flushwork on the tower. The font is the only 12thc. feature.
  • 13. Holy Trinity, Meldreth, Cambridgeshire, England
    W tower and nave from S
    Parish church
    Five-bay nave with 14–15thc. S aisle and S porch, aisleless 12thc. chancel with plain, round-headed windows (two on the N and one on the S) and W tower of c.1210–20. The tower and chancel are of rubble masonry with ashlar facings. The nave is of flint with the aisle and porch mortar rendered. There was a restoration in 1887 (datestone), which included the installation of a neo-Norman triplet in the chancel E wall, then in 1960 the top storey of the tower was comprehensively restored. In 1993 a church hall was added to the N, accessible from the church via the original N nave doorway. Features included are the N doorway, the tower arch and the tower windows.
  • 14. All Saints, Milton, Cambridgeshire, England
    Exterior, view from SE.
    Parish church
    A church, which has seen some unusual changes over the years. Originally nave, chancel and W tower, and the chancel arch implies that nave and chancel may have been 11thc., although the chancel was rebuilt, except for its S wall, in 1847. There is a S aisle of the early 14thc. and a 19thc. N aisle, both of these extending for only three bays of a five-bay nave. The S wall has a clerestorey, the N wall does not. The bay to the W of the aisle on the S side has a 17thc. S porch, and projecting from that porch is a 19thc. porch. The outer opening of the 17thc. porch is thus the inner doorway of the 19thc. one, and Pevsner suspects that it may have been recut from a 12thc. doorway. The church is mortar rendered apart from the W tower, which is of stone rubble. There was a restoration in 1847, and more recently (c.1990) a church hall and office complex has been erected on the N side, extending from the chancel to midway along the nave aisle, with access to the church through the N nave doorway. Liturgically, the S aisle floor level has been raised with staging and an altar set up at the E end of it, facing diagonally across the nave with seating arranged in a quarter-circle around it. The chancel is redundant in this arrangement, and indeed it has been partially obscured by an impressive public address system. Fortunately all of this can easily be reversed. The S doorway is briefly described below, although it is substantially a post-medieval piece. Of more interest is the chancel arch.
  • 15. St Andrew, Oakington, Cambridgeshire, England
    Exterior, view from SE.
    Parish church
    St Andrew's has a low, five-bay nave with 13thc. aisles of slightly different designs, and no clerestorey but big, Perpendicular aisle windows. The 13thc. chancel is aisleless and has a 19thc. E window in a Perpendicular style. There is a late-13thc. W tower without a spire. Construction is of pebble rubble on an ashlar plinth course except for the chancel where a good deal of coarse, dark brown conglomerate is used. The E wall of the chancel is rendered. The only Romanesque feature is the font.
  • 16. St John the Baptist, Pampisford, Cambridgeshire, England
    Exterior general view from E
    Parish church
    Nave with N aisle, chancel, W tower with Hertfordshire spike. Construction is of flint and pebble with ashlar facings. The 12thc. S nave doorway, protected by a porch, has a figural tympanum. Access has not yet been possible, but Pevsner reports a Norman font.
  • 17. All Saints, Rampton, Cambridgeshire, England
    Exterior, view from SE.
    Parish church
    All Saints has a nave of four bays with S aisle and S porch and a vestry on the N side, a broad, aisleless chancel, and a W tower with a low pyramid roof. The chancel arch is 12thc. in its lower parts but was rebuilt, along with the chancel, c.1330. The S nave aisle dates from the late 13thc., and the tower arch is Perpendicular, although the tower itself must be earlier in its lower stages. The porch is 18thc. and of brick, while the remainder of the church is in a rubble mixture of pebble, rough stone and conglomerate. The upper storeys of the tower are rendered and the nave roof is thatched. Romanesque features described are the chancel arch and stones reset in the exterior E wall of the chancel.
  • 18. St Mary the Virgin, Sawston, Cambridgeshire, England
    Exterior general view from SE
    Parish church
    A flint and pebble church consisting of nave and aisles with an aisleless 13thc. chancel and a W tower with a lead spike and an external Sanctus bell. A vestry was added to the S of the tower in the 19thc. The three W bays of both nave arcades date from the later 12thc., while the two E bays are 13thc.
  • 19. All Saints, Shepreth, Cambridgeshire, England
    Ext. general view from S
    Parish church
    Nave with S aisle rebuilt in brick, rendered chancel and ashlar and flint W tower. Brick boiler house added to S nave aisle. The chancel was rebuilt in the early 17thc. after a fire, and again in 1777, and there was a restoration in 1870. Features described are the N nave doorway and the chancel arch.
  • 20. St Andrew, Soham, Cambridgeshire, England
    Exterior, general view from SE.
    Parish church
    A cruciform church of c.1200 with aisled nave, transepts and aisleless chancel. The crossing tower was removed and a W tower built to replace it, referred to in 1502 as the novum campanile and probably dating from around that time. The nave clerestorey is also late medieval, as is the chapel added to the N of the chancel. The W crossing arch provides a spectacular display of chevron ornament, and all four crossing arches have carved capitals, as do the nave arcades. Finally there are plain arches leading from the nave aisles into the transepts.
  • 21. St Andrew, Stapleford, Cambridgeshire, England
    Exterior general view from NW
    Parish church
    Nave with N and S aisles and a N transept at the E end; aisleless chancel and W tower. A large flint vestry has been added to the N of the nave. The nave, transept and tower are of flint and pebble, while the chancel has been newly rebuilt in concrete blocks on the original flint plinth course. There is a 12thc. chancel arch, and a small gravestone loose inside the church.
  • 22. St James, Stretham, Cambridgeshire, England
    Exterior, view from SE.
    Parish church
    Aisled nave with clerestory, N and S transepts, chancel with vestry to N and organ loft to S and W tower with octagonal stone spire. Externally the rubble tower and its ashlar spire, with two tiers of dormers, are clearly 14thc. Everything else looks 19thc. In fact the N arcade and the chancel are 14thc. too, but heavily restored. Construction is of coursed ashlar, much of it irregular. The only 12thc. features are sections of string course neatly reset inside the S porch.
  • 23. Holy Cross, Stuntney, Cambridgeshire, England
    Exterior from SW.
    Parish church
    It is probably fairest to describe Holy Cross as a church of 1876 and 1900–02, built reusing some medieval features. It is on a tiny site with a churchyard no larger than the gardens of the nearby houses. Construction is of flint with a neo-Tudor W gable. The building has a nave and S aisle with a wooden arcade between, and an aisleless chancel with a S vestry. The saddleback-roofed tower rises from the angle between the chancel and the E end of the S aisle. The S nave doorway is a reused 12thc. piece, and its companion has been reused as the internal W tower arch. The N tower arch is broader but of a similar design, and must originally have been a chancel arch. The font, described as 12thc. by the VCH, is illustrated here but is surely 18thc. as Pevsner suggests.
  • 24. St Mary, Swaffham Prior, Cambridgeshire, England
    Church Plan
    Parish church
    There are two churches on the same site: S of St Mary's is the redundant later church of SS Cyriac and Julitta. St Mary's has a four bay Perpendicular aisled nave with a clerestorey and an aisleless chancel, largely dating to Sir Arthur Blomfield's restoration of 1878 but with blocked round-headed windows to N and S. All of this is attached to a spectacular 12thc. W tower with a later doorway under a porch. The tower has a square lower storey with plain windows to N and S; an octagonal second storey on squinches with more elaborate 12thc. windows to N, S and W; a 16-sided third storey with pointed lancets; and a 16-sided later fourth storey with a modern parapet, all surmounted by a lead spike. There are string courses between storeys. Inside, the tower is open for the first three storeys, but the lowest has been vaulted at some point and the W side of the tower arch cut away. Construction is of flint and pebble rubble.
  • 25. St Mary and St Botolph, Thorney, Cambridgeshire, England
    Exterior from SW.
    Originally Benedictine Abbey, now parish church
    What survives of the abbey church begun under Gunter, abbot from 1085, is the five W bays of the nave, with alternating round and compound piers, divided into bays by half-column responds running up from floor to ceiling, where they terminate in a cornice, presumably of 1638. The nave was originally aisled and had a gallery and clerestorey. The aisles have been demolished and the arcade walled below and glazed above. Likewise the gallery arches have been glazed and the roof lowered by the removal of the clerestorey (although the blocked windows of the W bay survive, visible on the exterior). The arcade and gallery arches are thus visible both inside and out. All this remodelling work dates from the rebuilding of 1638. At the W end the Norman buttresses have become the twin turrets of a 15thc. façade, with a Perpendicular W window and doorway. At the E a transept copying the Romanesque work, with vestries and organ in the arms and the altar in the centre, was added by Edward Blore, architect of Buckingham Palace, from 1839-41.
  • 26. St George and All Saints, Thriplow, Cambridgeshire, England
    Font, detail of support
    Parish church
    Aisleless cruciform church, mostly of the late 13thc., with a central tower with spike. The W front is Perpendicular, and there was a restoration by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1877. Construction is of flint, Barnack stone and clunch (Vinter 1995). The church contains a 12thc. font.
  • 27. St Giles, Tydd St Giles, Cambridgeshire, England
    Church and tower from SE.
    Parish church
    St Giles's is a large church with a freestanding tower to the SE. The church has a six-bay aisled nave with late 12thc. or early 13thc. arcades and later N and S doorways, the N under a porch. The present, Perpendicular, clerestory is higher than the original, which can still be seen on the outside as a series of round or slightly pointed arches. The chancel was destroyed in a gale in 1741, although the early 13thc. chancel arch survives. It was rebuilt shorter the following year and finally taken down in the 1868 restoration. This was undertaken by the Rector, Canon John Scott, under the direction of his brother, Sir George Gilbert Scott. Construction is of roughly coursed stones with brick repairs. The freestanding tower, begun in the 13thc., is of three storeys, the lowest of stone rubble, the second rendered for most of its height, and the remainder of brick. The ground floor was originally open on all four sides. The nave arcades and chancel arch are described here, although all probably date from the early years of the 13thc.
  • 28. Wisbech and Fenland Museum, Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, England
    Pillar piscina.
    Museum
    The stones numbered 1, 2 and 3 were part of a batch of material given to the museum on 10 January 1872 by Mr John Batterham, a member of a family of local builders. Such details of provenance as were supplied at the time are given below, but the accession register is sketchy and the original correspondence is lost. Any marks that were made on the stones at the time of accessioning have long disappeared. I am most grateful to Robert Bell, Assistant Curator, for his help.
  • 29. St Peter, Wentworth, Cambridgeshire, England
    Exterior, view from NW.
    Parish church
    St Peter's is a small church with aisleless nave and chancel and a W tower with a pyramid roof. The nave has 12thc. N and S doorways, the S under a porch dating from 1868, when the nave was rebuilt. The chancel is 13thc. and the tower 14thc. Construction is of stone and pebble rubble. The nave has recently been converted into a church hall by screening it from the chancel and laying a tiled floor. Benches for the parishioners have been installed in the chancel, which already contained choir stalls and the organ. The nave doorways are described below, but the glory of the church is a 12thc relief of St Peter now set into the interior N chancel wall.
  • 30. St Mary and St Andrew, Whittlesford, Cambridgeshire, England
    Exterior general view from S
    Parish church
    12thc. nave and crossing tower, and 13thc. chancel. A S aisle was added to the nave in the 13thc., then in the 15thc. Henry Cyprian's chantry chapel was added to the S of the chancel, contiguous with the S nave arcade. The crossing arches to E and W are also 15thc., but there is evidence of the 12thc. E arch surviving (see below). The top stage of the tower is Perpendicular, and it has a small lead spike. Construction is of flint and pebble with brick repairs. There are 12thc. windows in the N and S faces of the tower, and another in the N wall of the nave. Romanesque features treated here are the font, a tower window carved with a sheela-na-gig, and chevron voussoirs reset outside the chantry chapel.
  • 31. St Peter, Wilburton, Cambridgeshire, England
    Exterior, view from SE.
    Parish church
    St Peter's has a big, aisleless 15thc. nave with Perpendicular windows under wall arches, a 15thc. chancel with a similar internal elevation and a N vestry, a 13thc. W tower with a 15thc. tower arch and a two-storey 15thc. S porch. The chancel arch is 13thc. The church was restored in 1851, and N transept and attached organ chamber were added in 1868. Construction is of rubble with some render on the tower, which is fitted with a lead spike. The only features recorded here are two stones in the S porch, one loose, the other mortared in place. Both are treated as loose stones below.
  • 32. St Mary and All Saints, Willingham, Cambridgeshire, England
    Exterior, view from SE.
    Parish church
    A big church with a six-bay aisled nave with clerestory and S porch, aisleless chancel with N sacristy chapel and W tower with spire. The earliest fabric is dated by a blocked 13thc. lancet in the N wall, but the nave arcades, the W tower with its octagonal spire on broaches supported by flying buttresses linked to the pinnacles, and the chancel with its sacristy all date from a campaign begun in the 1330s. The sacristy is a unique feature of unknown purpose. It is essentially a separate building with three slender arches inside to carry a stone roof. The nave clerestory is Perpendicular. The exterior is of stone rubble, the ashlar is Barnack. There was a major restoration in the 1890s, and it was in the course of this that 12thc. carved stones were discovered in the chancel S wall. These are now built into the N and S walls of the S porch. The tower was restored in 1990, and in 1999 a new church hall, the Octagon, was added to the N side of the nave.
  • 33. St Peter and St Paul, Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, England
    General view from S.
    Parish church
    The earliest fabric suggests the existence of a late-12thc., six-bay aisled nave with a W tower and a chancel of unknown form. Towards the end of the 13thc. the church was almost doubled in width by widening the N aisle and replacing the S aisle with a second nave, as wide as the first, and equipped with its own chancel and S aisle. At the same time or slightly later the original chancel was enlarged in both length and width, so that it was now wider than the original nave, to which it was linked by a diagonal bay. An open arcade separated the two chancels. Around 1500 the W tower collapsed, taking the 12thc. S arcade with it. The arcade was replaced and a new tower built, detached from the church at the NW and bearing the arms of Bishop Goodrick (1534–54). Remains of the original tower survive in the form of its N and S arches and the E arch bases. The church therefore consists of a double nave with aisles to N and S, and arcades of (from N to S) c.1200, c.1500, and c.1300; a two-storey 14thc. S porch; a double chancel; W tower arches but no W tower, and a detached NW tower of the 1530s. Construction is of ashlar, that on the S of roughly coursed stones. The tower is of regular large blocks. Romanesque sculpture is found on the capitals of the tower arches and the N nave arcade.
  • 34. St Andrew, Witchford, Cambridgeshire, England
    Exterior, view from S.
    Parish church
    Aisleless nave, chancel and W tower, all in rubble with brick repairs, especially to the tower. The nave has N and S doorways, the former under a brick porch. A date stone over the N doorway indicates a restoration in 1887. The tower is 13thc., and the later nave is canted to connect with it. The apparent date of nave and chancel is early 14thc., but the consecration date of 1376 indicates that it must be later. The only 12thc. feature is a beast head corbel reset in the nave W wall to the N of the tower.