St Mary, Swaffham Prior, Cambridgeshire

I Location

Site Location: Swaffham Prior
National Grid Reference: TL 568 640
County: traditional: Cambridgeshire
now: Cambridgeshire
Diocese: medieval: not confirmed
now: Ely
Dedication: medieval: not confirmed
now (or name of monument): St Mary
Type of building/monument: Parish church

II General Description

: Church Plan

: General view from NW with St Cyriac’s in background.

: W tower, general view from SW.

: W tower, general view from NW.

: Interior, tower and nave to E.

: Interior, nave to W.

There are two churches on the same site: S of St Mary's is the redundant later church of SS Cyriac and Julitta. St Mary's has a four bay Perpendicular aisled nave with a clerestorey and an aisleless chancel, largely dating to Sir Arthur Blomfield's restoration of 1878 but with blocked round-headed windows to N and S. All of this is attached to a spectacular 12thc. W tower with a later doorway under a porch. The tower has a square lower storey with plain windows to N and S; an octagonal second storey on squinches with more elaborate 12thc. windows to N, S and W; a 16-sided third storey with pointed lancets; and a 16-sided later fourth storey with a modern parapet, all surmounted by a lead spike. There are string courses between storeys. Inside, the tower is open for the first three storeys, but the lowest has been vaulted at some point and the W side of the tower arch cut away. Construction is of flint and pebble rubble.

III Exterior Features

2. Windows

(i) Tower second storey, S face

: W tower, S face, 2nd storey, window and string course.

: W tower, S face, 2nd storey, window, L side, capital.

Round-headed, two orders. First order plain and continuous. Second order has en-delit nook shafts on attic bases supporting capitals with plain neckings and hollow chamfered imposts. The W capital is a block capital shallowly carved with diagonal reeding on its two faces. The E has lost its decoration through erosion. There is an angle roll in the arch.

(ii) Tower second storey, W face

: W tower, W face, 2nd storey, window and string course.

: W tower, W face, 2nd storey, window, R side, capital.

: W tower, W face, 2nd storey, window, L side, capital.

Round-headed, two orders. As (i) above. The N capital as S window, W capital. The S capital is a cushion with a diagonally reeded bell.

(iii) Tower second storey, N face

: W tower, N face, 2nd storey, window and string course.

: W tower, N face, 2nd storey, window, R side, capital.

: W tower, N face, 2nd storey, window, L side, capital.

Round-headed, two orders. As (ii) above. The E capital as S window, W capital. The W capital is a cushion with vertical reeding on the bell.

3. Exterior Decoration

a. String courses

(i) Tower

Running around the tower between the first and second storeys is a triple-row billet string course.

(ii) Tower

Running around the tower between the second and third storeys is a chamfered string course with a row of directional chevron on face and chamfer.

IV Interior Features

1. Arches

b. Tower/Transept arches

(i) Tower arch.

W arch.

: Interior, tower arch, W face, S side, arch springing from NW.

: Interior, tower arch, E face, view from E.

Round headed, one order. The W face has square jambs with chamfered imposts, the top and bottom of the chamfer defined by a groove. Imposts on this side have been cut back to accommodate a later rib vault. In the arch is an angle roll. The E face has plain square jambs and arch, broken only by chamfered imposts with angle rolls between face and chamfer.

VII History

VIII Comments/Opinions

Cushion capitals with fluted (rather than reeded) decoration on the bells are found on the chancel arch at Stapleford.

IX Bibliography

G. R. Bossier, Notes on the Cambridgeshire Churches. 1827, 60
The Ecclesiastical and Architectural Topography of England: Cambridgeshire (Architectural Institute of Great Britain and Ireland), Oxford 1852, 165.
C. H. Evelyn-White, County Churches: Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely. London 1911, 172-74.
D. and S. Lysons, Magna Britannia. Cambridgeshire II, pt I, London 1808, 262-63.
N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England. Cambridgeshire, Harmondsworth 1954 (second ed. 1970), 466-67.
RCHME, An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the County of Cambridge. II, 1972, 116-20.