St Andrew, Histon, Cambridgeshire

I Location

Site Location
Histon
National Grid Reference
TL 435 640
County
traditional: Cambridgeshire
now: Cambridgeshire
Diocese
medieval: not confirmed
now: Ely
Dedication
medieval: St Andrew c.1588
now (or name of monument): St Andrew
Type of building/monument
Parish church

II General Description

Exterior, view from SE.

Exterior, view from SE.

St Andrew's is a cruciform church with a two-bay aisled nave with clerestory, early 13thc. chancel, crossing of c.1300 and transepts of c.1275 decorated with blind arcading within which Pevsner attributes to masons from St Radegund's Nunnery and St John's Hospital, Cambridge. The crossing tower is Decorated in its upper stages. The nave and chancel have tall ashlar plinth courses and are constructed on stone rubble above. The nave was restored by Bodley (1857) and the chancel by Sir G. G. Scott. The transept is of roughly coursed ashlar and the tower is mortar rendered. 12thc. stones are found reset on the W facade.

III Exterior Features

3. Exterior Decoration

d. Miscellaneous

W front, lower part with reset stones.

W front, lower part with reset stones.

Reset on the exterior of the W facade are five chevron voussoirs and a double springer.

(i) Voussoir
W front, reset stones 1 and 2, chevron voussoirs.

W front, reset stones 1 and 2, chevron voussoirs.

(To N of W window 0.5 m below sill level) voussoir carved with 1 + 2 half units of lateral face chevron, quirked roll profile.

(ii) Voussoirs

(Immediately to R of 1) chevron voussoir as 1.

(iii) Voussoir

(Approx. 0.5 m to R of 2) chevron voussoir of the same profile as 1 and 2, but containing only 11/2 units of chevron.

W front, reset stone 3, chevron voussoirs.

W front, reset stone 3, chevron voussoirs.

(iv) Voussoir

(To S of W window 0.5 m below sill level) chevron voussoir as 1.

(v) Voussoir

(Immediately to R of 1) chevron voussoir as 1.

W front, reset stones 4 and 5, chevron voussoirs.

W front, reset stones 4 and 5, chevron voussoirs.

(vi) Springer

(To L of 4, and just above) double springer with a fat angle roll on each arch springing.

W front, reset stone 6, double springer.

W front, reset stone 6, double springer.

VII History

In 1086 Histon was one of the 12 demesne manors of the Bishop of Lincoln, assessed at 26½ hides, of which 9 hides and 3 virgates were held from the bishop by Picot of Cambridge. Picot also held rather more than a hide in Histon from Bishop Remigius of Lincoln, but this land had belonged to the Abbot of Ely before the Conquest, and the Hundred witnessed that the Bishop had usurped it from the Abbot. To complicate matters further, the Abbot had another holding in Histon, of 1 hide and 3 virgates. A further virgate and 10 acres were held by Morin from the Count of Mortain.

In 1092 Picot granted the church and ? of the tithes of this and other manors for the foundation of Barnwell Priory. As late as the end of the 16thc. there were still two parish churches in Histon, the other being dedicated to St Etheldreda. This was demolished by Sir Francis Hynde, owner of Madingley Hall, as a supply of building stone. In 1874 some of Sir Fancis Hynde's work at Madingley was demolished, and as it happened that St Andrew's, Histon was under restoration at the time, many fragments originally from St Etheldreda's found their way to St Andrew's. For the fate of the font, however, see Madingley church.

VIII Comments/Opinions

IX Bibliography

  • G. R. Bossier, Notes on the Cambridgeshire Churches. 1827, 24.
  • The Ecclesiastical and Architectural Topography of England: Cambridgeshire (Architectural Institute of Great Britain and Ireland), Oxford 1852, 79.
  • C. H. Evelyn-White, County Churches: Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely. London 1911, 99-102.
  • A. G. Hill, Architectural and Historical Notices of the Churches of Cambridgeshire. London 1880, 3-22.
  • 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, 213-14.
  • N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England. Cambridgeshire, Harmondsworth 1954 (2nd ed. 1970), 408-09.
  • RCHME, An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the County of Cambridge. Volume 1. West Cambridgeshire. London 1968, xxxv, 178, 179.
  • A. E. Shipley, "Madingley Hall Cambridgeshire, the Residence of Colonel T. W. Harding", Country Life XXXII, 1912, 454.
  • The Victoria History of the County of Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely, IX, 1989, 102-06.