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St John the Baptist, Duxford, Cambridgeshire

Location
(52°5′39″N, 0°9′22″E)
Duxford
TL 478 462
pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales) Cambridgeshire
now Cambridgeshire
  • Ron Baxter
  • Ron Baxter
19 June 2003

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Description

12thc. nave, chancel and central tower. An elaborate N chapel was added to the chancel c1350, and the nave has a N aisle of c1450. Construction is of flint and pebble with brick repairs and some mortar render on the chancel. The S porch is of brick, and brick buttresses have been added to support the tower. The exterior N aisle wall includes 12thc. moulded fragments, none with sculpture. 12thc. features recorded here are the tower arches and the S doorway. The church has been disused since 1874 and was declared redundant in 1976.

History

In 1066 Ulf, a thegn of King Edward, held 4½ hides in Duxford, and Herulf and Ingwar, also Edward's men, had smaller holdings. Another holding of 4¾ hides was divided among 13 sokemen, Eadgifu the Fair held 6 hides and Archbishop Stigand 3½. By 1086 everything had changed. Ulf's holding went to Robert de Tosny and Gilbert held it from him. The holdings of Stigand and Herulf passsed to Count Eustace. Eadgifu's 6 hides went to Count Alan and were held from him by Gerard, and a further 3 hides and 1 virgate were held by Payne from Hardwin de Scales.

The advowson of St John's was later held by the Lords of the manor later known as Lacy's, which was part of that held by Count Alan in 1086.

Features

Exterior Features

Doorways

Interior Features

Arches

Tower/Transept arches
Comments/Opinions

Other writers have agreed that the tympanum does not match the rest of the doorway, but their conclusions are very different. Cobbett (1929) dated the tympanum earlier than the doorway, likening it to Hartlepool grave slabs and dating it c.640-800. H. M. and J. Taylor rejected any Anglo-Saxon attribution and dated it "post-Norman" on the ground that the arched upper surface is three-centred. For the present author the only certainty is that arch and tympanum were not designed to go together, and the likeliest possibility is that the chevron arch is an elaboration of a much simpler doorway, including the tympanum, which belongs to the same date as the tower arches. For these, Johnson draws parallels with early (c.1090) work at Ely itself.

The church is now redundant and in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.

Bibliography

S. Bradley and N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Cambridgeshire, New Haven and London 2014, 472-73

G. R. Bossier, Notes on the Cambridgeshire Churches. 1827, 44.
L. Cobbett, "The Tympanum at St John's Church, Duxford, Cambs.", Cambridge Antiquarian Society Proceedings and Communications, XXX, 1929.
The Victoria History of the County of Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely, VI, 1978, 217-18.
C. H. Evelyn-White, County Churches: Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely. London 1911, 65-66.
The Ecclesiastical and Architectural Topography of England: Cambridgeshire (Architectural Institute of Great Britain and Ireland), Oxford 1852, 153.
F. S. L. Johnson, A Catalogue of Romanesque Sculpture in Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely. M.Phil (London, Courtauld Institute), 1984, 245-49.
D. and S. Lysons, Magna Britannia. Cambridgeshire II, pt I, London 1808, 50-51, 181-82.
N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England. Cambridgeshire, Harmondsworth 1954 (2nd ed. 1970), 333.
H. M. and J. Taylor, Anglo-Saxon Architecture. II, 1965, 77.
H. A. Tipping, "A Cambridgeshire Village Church", Country Life LII, 1922, 844-46.