St Peter, Boxworth, Cambridgeshire

I Location

Site Location
Boxworth
National Grid Reference
TL 348 645
County
traditional: Cambridgeshire
now: Cambridgeshire
Diocese
medieval: not confirmed
now: Ely
Dedication
medieval: not confirmed
now (or name of monument): St Peter
Type of building/monument
Parish church

II General Description

Exterior, general view from SW.

Exterior, general view from SW.

Exterior, chancel, S vestry, S wall.

Exterior, chancel, S vestry, S wall.

Exterior, chancel, S vestry, E wall.

Exterior, chancel, S vestry, E wall.

The church is of pebble rubble, embattled following a restoration of 1640 when the chancel was also rebuilt. It has a nave, possibly of the 11thc. (RCHM), with a 14thc. S aisle, a mortar-rendered unaisled chancel with S vestry and a W tower. There are assorted architectural mouldings and a piece of a 13thc. grave slab reset on the exterior of the S and E walls of the S vestry. The only 12thc. sculpture is on a reset window head in the N nave wall.

III Exterior Features

3. Exterior Decoration

d. Miscellaneous

(i) Reset window head
Nave, N wall, reset window head.

Nave, N wall, reset window head.

Reset in the N wall of the nave, W bay, under window. Semicircular and decorated with two rows of chip-carved saltires, difficult to make out owing to lichen encrustation.

Dimensions
ext. diameter 0.40 m
int. diameter 0.17 m
h. 0.255 m

VII History

The picture in 1086 was a complex one. Picot held the largest manor, of 3½ hides, from Robert Gernon. Payne held two hides from Hardwin de Scales, six sokemen held 1 hide from Gilbert de Ghent, and two sokemen held 1 hide under Count Alan. The Abbot of Ramsey held the remaining half hide as part of his desmesne. In no case is a church mentioned as standing in Boxworth at that date.

VIII Comments/Opinions

For similar chip-carving, see Cambridge, St Giles, Ely Cathedral, Little Abington, Chettisham, Fowlmere and Hauxton.

IX Bibliography

  • G. R. Bossier, Notes on the Cambridgeshire Churches. 1827, 31.
  • The Ecclesiastical and Architectural Topography of England: Cambridgeshire (Architectural Institute of Great Britain and Ireland), Oxford 1852, 106.
  • C. H. Evelyn-White, County Churches: Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely. London 1911, 16-17.
  • F. S. L. Johnson, A Catalogue of Romanesque Sculpture in Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely. M.Phil (London, Courtauld Institute), 1984.
  • D. and S. Lysons, Magna Britannia. Cambridgeshire II, pt I, London 1808, 94-95.
  • N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England. Cambridgeshire, Harmondsworth 1954 (2nd ed. 1970), 308.
  • RCHME, An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the County of Cambridge. Volume 1. West Cambridgeshire. London 1968, xxxv, 28-30.
  • The Victoria History of the County of Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely, IX, 1989, 277–79.