St Andrew, Impington, Cambridgeshire

I Location

Site Location: Impington
National Grid Reference: TL 447 633
County: traditional: Cambridgeshire
now: Cambridgeshire
Diocese: medieval: not confirmed
now: Ely
Dedication: medieval: not confirmed
now (or name of monument): St Andrew
Type of building/monument: Parish church

II General Description

: Exterior, view from SE.

: Exterior, chancel, S wall, E bay with reset stones.

: Exterior, chancel, S wall, W bay with reset stones.

Aisleless nave, 14thc. chancel articulated on the interior with wide arches enclosing the windows, 14thc. W tower. Construction is of mixed stone and pebble rubble except for the timber-framed Perpendicular S porch. There was a restoration in 1878–79, then in 1995 a large church hall complex was added to the N side, attached to the N chancel vestry. 12thc. stones are found reset in the exterior S wall of the chancel.

III Exterior Features

3. Exterior Decoration

d. Miscellaneous

(i) Voussoir

: Exterior, chancel, S wall, W bay, reset stone 1, chevron voussoir.

In chancel S wall, W bay: (below W edge of window) centrifugal chevron voussoir with profile of a single quirked roll with cogwheel edge.

Dimensions

max. w. (extrados)	0.13 m
min. w. (intrados)	0.13 m
l.	0.23 m

(ii) Voussoir

: Exterior, chancel, S wall, W bay, reset stone 2, chevron voussoir.

In chancel S wall, W bay: (below E edge of window) chevron voussoir as 1.

Dimensions

max. w (extrados)	0.13 m
min w (intrados)	0.11 m
l.	0.23 m

(iii)

: Exterior, chancel, S wall, W bay, reset stone 3, chevron voussoir.

In chancel S wall, E bay: (below centre of window) chevron voussoir as 1.

Dimensions

max. approx. w. (extrados)	0.16 m
min. w (intrados)	0.14 m
l.	0.23 m

(iv)

: Exterior, chancel, S wall, W bay, reset stone 4, cushion capital with head.

: Exterior, chancel S wall, E bay, stone 4 and other reset material.

In chancel S wall, E bay: (to R of window) cushion capital with human head attached. The head is an irregular oval with bulbous, undrilled eyes, deep brows, projecting nose and small mouth. Below the capital is a length of shaft and a bulbous base. The foot of the base is approximately 2.5 m above the ground and the stone could not, therefore, be measured.

VII History

The manor (6½ hides) was part of the demesne of Ely Abbey in 1086, and before the Conquest. Walter had a further holding of 3½ hides from Picot. In the 12thc. Bishop Nigel endowed the tithes of Impington church to the Ely Cathedral scriptorium.

VIII Comments/Opinions

IX Bibliography

G. R. Bossier, Notes on the Cambridgeshire Churches. 1827, 25.
The Ecclesiastical and Architectural Topography of England: Cambridgeshire (Architectural Institute of Great Britain and Ireland), Oxford 1852, 81.
C. H. Evelyn-White, County Churches: Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely. London 1911, 107-08.
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, 219.
N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England. Cambridgeshire, Harmondsworth 1954 (2nd ed. 1970), 412.
D. J. Stewart, On the Architectural History of Ely Cathedral, London 1868, 280
The Victoria History of the County of Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely, IX, 1989, 136-37.