All Saints, Melbourn, Cambridgeshire

I Location

Site Location: Melbourn
National Grid Reference: TL 382 448
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

: Church Plan

Substantially a 13thc. church with five-bay aisled nave, aisleless chancel, and W tower. 14thc. S transept or chapel added, then a major rebuilding c.1500 when the tower was entirely replaced and fitted with a spike, and many of the windows were renewed. The S porch dates from this period too. There was a restoration in 1883, which included the replacement of the N aisle windows. Construction is of flint and pebble with ashlar facings. There is some flushwork on the tower. The font is the only 12thc. feature.

V Furnishings

1. Fonts

(i)

: Font, general view from E

: Font, E face detail

W end of S aisle. An octagonal bowl on a modern octagonal shaft. The bowl has been cut down from a larger 12thc. square bowl and retains some carving on its E face. This consists of most of two bays of an arcade in shallow relief. The piers are rounded and there are block-like imposts and segmental arches. Above the arcade is a band of zigzag with trefoils filling the triangular fields. The interior of the bowl is circular and lead lined.

Dimensions

h. of bowl	0.32 m
w. of bowl (across flats)	0.735 m
w. of bowl (corner to corner)	0.785 m
interior diam. of bowl	0.565 m
w. of carved face	0.30 m

VII History

VIII Comments/Opinions

IX Bibliography

G. R. Bossier, Notes on the Cambridgeshire Churches. 1827, 39-40.
The Ecclesiastical and Architectural Topography of England: Cambridgeshire (Architectural Institute of Great Britain and Ireland), Oxford 1852, 123.
C. H. Evelyn-White, County Churches: Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely. London 1911, 133-34.
F. S. L. Johnson, A Catalogue of Romanesque Sculpture in Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely. M.Phil (London, Courtauld Institute), 1984, 280.
A. H. Lloyd, "Melbourn Church", Cambridge Antiquarian Society Proceedings and Communications, XXIX, 1926-27.
D. and S. Lysons, Magna Britannia. Cambridgeshire II, pt I, London 1808, 233-35.
N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England. Cambridgeshire, Harmondsworth 1954 (2nd ed. 1970), 439-40.
The Victoria History of the County of Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely, VIII, 1982, 80.