All Saints, Haslingfield, Cambridgeshire

I Location

Site Location
Haslingfield
National Grid Reference
TL 404 522
County
traditional: Cambridgeshire
now: Cambridgeshire
Diocese
medieval: not confirmed
now: Ely
Dedication
medieval: not confirmed
now (or name of monument): All Saints
Type of building/monument
Parish church

II General Description

Exterior, general view from S.

Exterior, general view from S.

Chancel, S wall from SE.

Chancel, S wall from SE.

Church Plan

Church Plan

Haslingfield has a spacious 14thc. aisled nave with a clerestorey with 16thc. windows, an aisleless chancel whose walls must be 12thc. even if the present windows are 14thc., and a Perpendicular W tower with a lead spike. The chancel has a N vestry, and there is a curious S porch with a curved roof whose lead is dated to 1746. All except the chancel is ashlar faced; that is of pebble rubble. The 12thc. feature here described is a string course on the N and S wall of the chancel.

III Exterior Features

3. Exterior Decoration

a. String courses

(i) Chancel
Chancel, S wall, string course, detail.

Chancel, S wall, string course, detail.

Chancel, N wall with string course.

Chancel, N wall with string course.

On the N and S sides of the chancel is a double-chamfered string course, carved on all three planes with sawtooth. The string course is at a regular height of approximately 1.28 m above the plinth course, and is interrupted by doors and windows inserted later. It is therefore assumed to be an original feature of the fabric. It is made up of blocks with a uniform height of 0.13 m, varying in length from 0.24–0.36 m.

VII History

The church was given to St Mary's Abbey, York, by Roger de Somery, c.1100.

VIII Comments/Opinions

The string course is similar in design and block length to reset stones at Great Shelford, although as the latter are set into a wall it is not clear whether they are single- or double-chamfered.

IX Bibliography

  • N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England. Cambridgeshire, Harmondsworth 1954 (2nd ed. 1970), 403-04.
  • G. R. Bossier, Notes on the Cambridgeshire Churches. 1827, 34.
  • The Ecclesiastical and Architectural Topography of England: Cambridgeshire (Architectural Institute of Great Britain and Ireland), Oxford 1852, 13.
  • C. H. Evelyn-White, County Churches: Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely. London 1911, 91-93.
  • F. S. L. Johnson, A Catalogue of Romanesque Sculpture in Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely. M.Phil (London, Courtauld Institute), 1984, 259.
  • D. and S. Lysons, Magna Britannia. Cambridgeshire II, pt I, London 1808, 207-09.
  • RCHME, An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the County of Cambridge. Volume 1. West Cambridgeshire. London 1968, 137-40.
  • The Victoria History of the County of Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely, V, 1973, 237.