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I Location

II General Description

12thc. nave, chancel and central tower. An elaborate N chapel was added to the chancel c1350, and the nave has a N aisle of c1450. Construction is of flint and pebble with brick repairs and some mortar render on the chancel. The S porch is of brick, and brick buttresses have been added to support the tower. The exterior N aisle wall includes 12thc. moulded fragments, none with sculpture. 12thc. features recorded here are the tower arches and the S doorway. The church has been disused since 1874 and was declared redundant in 1976.

III Exterior Features

1. Doorways

(i) S doorway, nave

Of two orders, round-headed with tympanum. The tympanum is segmental headed and much smaller than the arch of the second order which encloses it. Whatever was used to fill the resulting moon-shaped gap has been rendered with mortar. The tympanum is carved with a cross potent, embellished with extra steps at each foot and around the central crossing. In the middle of this is a roundel with a sexfoil and pellets between the petals. The cross has been outlined in black paint, which is probably modern. The first order has plain jambs with corbels supporting the tympanum. Both are too worn to decipher, but might once have been carved. The second order is much wider and looks later. There are remains of coursed angle shafts. That to the E has a double-roll base and what may have been a cushion capital with a roll impost; the W jamb is badly worn. In the arch is single roll chevron, point-to-point on face and soffit, enclosing lozenges on the angle. A thick layer of yellow paint has been applied to the whole doorway at some time, but much has now flaked away.

Dimensions

IV Interior Features

1. Arches

b. Tower/Transept arches

(i) E Tower arch

Round headed with plain arch, one order to E and W. W face has en-delit nook shafts mortared in, and supported on carved bases.

N base: a pair of confronted beasts.

S base: carved with a simple knot of three intersecting threads.

The shafts support cushion capitals with projecting shields and signs of a volute broken off at the angle. Imposts are chamfered and carved with five rows of billet, covering face and chamfer. They continue along the soffit and onto the E face of the arch, where they become plain chamfered. The E face has squared jambs and arch with imposts as described above.

(ii) W tower arch

Round headed. Originally two orders on W face, one on E, but another shaft with capital and impost has been inserted inside the 1st order, halfway along the thickness of the wall, creating a third order in the jambs but not in the arch. In the description which follows this is treated as an added shaft, not as an order.

W face, original first order

Detached en-delit nook shaft supporting cushion capitals with small projecting shields and projecting wedges at the angles. Neckings plain (N side lost). Imposts chamfered with an angle roll between face and chamfer. Plain arch.

W face, original second order

As first order with imposts continuous but roughly removed on W face. Plain arch. The inserted shaft on either jamb is a half-column with a cushion capital with a tiny projecting shield and wedges at the angles. It has an awkwardly inserted chamfered impost. The E face of this arch is plain in the jambs and arch, broken only by the impost, which is continuous from the W face (orders 1 and 2).

VII History

In 1086, Gerard held 6 hides in Duxford from Count Alan. Count Eustace held 5 hides and 3 virgates. Gilbert held 4½ hides from Robert de Tosny, and Payne held 3 hides and 1 virgate from Hardwin de Scales. No church is mentioned in connection with any of these holdings, so it is not possible to distinguish between the two Duxford parishes at this date.

VIII Comments/Opinions

Other writers have agreed that the tympanum does not match the rest of the doorway, but their conclusions are very different. Cobbett (1929) dated the tympanum earlier than the doorway, likening it to Hartlepool grave slabs and dating it c.640-800. H. M. and J. Taylor rejected any Anglo-Saxon attribution and dated it "post-Norman" on the ground that the arched upper surface is three-centred. For the present author the only certainty is that arch and tympanum were not designed to go together, and the likeliest possibility is that the chevron arch is an elaboration of a much simpler doorway, including the tympanum, which belongs to the same date as the tower arches. For these, Johnson draws parallels with early (c.1090) work at Ely itself.

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

IX Bibliography