St Peter, Molesworth, Huntingdonshire

I Location

Site Location: Molesworth
National Grid Reference: TL 070 758
County: traditional: Huntingdonshire
now: Cambridgeshire
Diocese: medieval: Lincoln to 1837
now: Ely
Dedication: medieval: not confirmed
now (or name of monument): St Peter
Type of building/monument: Parish church

II General Description

: Exterior from W.

: Exterior from NW.

: Interior to E.

St Peter's has an aisleless nave with N and S doorways, the latter under a porch dated 1890; a 13thc. chancel, higher than the nave, with internal wall-arcading; and a three-storey W tower with battlements. The nave was rebuilt in the 15thc., and the tower added early in the 16thc. The church was restored in 1884-85, and at that time the chancel was demolished and rebuilt on a different axis. construction is of stone rubble. The church houses a collection of carved stones, some from the 12thc., which have been mortared together in the form of a Crucifixion housed in a niche at the W end of the N nave wall.

VI Loose Sculpture

(i) 'Crucifixion' stones

: Fragment “Crucifixion”.

: Fragment 1: chip-carved impost block.

: Fragments, types 2 and 3: shafts with spiral decoration.

: Lower part of fragment, “Crucifixion”.

: Fragment 4: cushion capital.

The 'Crucifixion' includes the following 12thc. stones, presumably from a doorway:

1. A cuboidal block of shelly limestone, probably an impost, carved on two of its narrow faces with a row of chip-carved saltires in squares below a cable moulding.

2. Eight cylindrical shaft sections carved with spiral decoration rising clockwise.

3. Four cylindrical shaft sections carved with spiral decoration rising anticlockwise.

4. A cushion capital with a roll necking. The capital was originally carved on two faces only and inserted into a wall (i.e. a nook shaft capital). It is now damaged on one of its two carved faces.

Dimensions

Cuboidal block:
h of block	0.13 m
l of block	0.27 m
w of block	0.23 m

Group of eight shaft sections:
diam. of each section	0.13 m
length (i-viii)	0.16 m; 0.30 m; 0.15 m; 0.15 m; 0.18 m; 0.15 m; 0.15 m; 0.22 m

Group of four shaft sections:
diam. of each section	0.13 m
length (i-iv)	0.17 m; 0.16 m; 0.24 m; 0.11 m

Cushion capital:
h.	0.24 m
w.	0.16 m
d.	0.225 m

VII History

The church is not mentioned in the Domesday survey of 1086, but at that time the manor was held by Countess Judith.

Benefice of Brington (All Saints) with Molesworth and Old Weston.

VIII Comments/Opinions

IX Bibliography

N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England. Bedfordshire and the County of Huntingdon and Peterborough, Harmondsworth 1968, 294.
RCHM(E), An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Huntingdonshire. London 1926, 182-84.
Victoria County History: Huntingdonshire. III (1936)