St Peter, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire

I Location

Site Location: Cambridge
National Grid Reference: TL 445 591
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, view from N.

: Exterior, view from SW.

St Peter's looks like what it is; a tiny rural church, which has been overtaken by the 19thc. expansion of Cambridge N of Northampton Street and Chesterton Lane. More recently the crowding to which this pretty little church has been subjected has been exacerbated by the construction of housing to the NW, so that the casual stroller would probably miss it altogether. It is a single-cell rectangular church with a W tower of four storeys and an octagonal 14thc. spire with dormers. Construction is of stone rubble with pebble for the tower and ashlar for the spire. The church was rebuilt in 1781. It has a 13thc. S doorway, too late to be included here, and a 12thc. font.

V Furnishings

1. Fonts

(i)

: Font, view from W.

: Font, bowl, W face.

: Font, bowl, N face.

: Font, bowl, E face.

: Font, bowl, S face.

: Font, bowl, fish-man at NE angle.

: Font, bowl, upper surface, NE angle.

At the W end of the nave, a square bowl on a columnar stand of ashlar blocks. The base has a roll necking above a low roll. The basin has a circular roll necking too. It is decorated with mermen at the angles, with forked tails, which they hold out on either side to form curves, which meet at the centre of each face of the bowl. Above this, in the upper centre of each face, is a pair of fluted leaves. The upper rim has a roll edge. There is a repair to the rim at the SE corner involving a new head for the merman and sections of cable moulding on the rim. The interior is circular and lead lined.

Dimensions

overall h. of font	1.03 m
h. of bowl	0.43 m
w. (N-S)	0.69 m
w. (E-W)	0.70 m
internal diam.	0.56 m

VII History

The church is now in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.

VIII Comments/Opinions

IX Bibliography

N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England. Cambridgeshire, Harmondsworth 1954 (2nd ed. 1970), 230.