All Saints, Croydon-cum-Clopton

All Saints serves the little village of Croydon, located a mile west of the old Roman Road of Ermine Street. It is also the parish church for the former village and parish of Clopton, located a mile south-west of the present village. 

Clopton was once large enough to warrant a weekly market, and had its own church of St Mary. But after 1500, it was gradually abandoned, and merged with Croydon in 1561. For once, this was not due to the plague, but the advent of a new landowner, one John Fisher, a lawyer from London. He purchased the land from the Clopton family, and then set about aggressively evicting the villagers to form enclosures.

The village of Croydon itself was once mostly east of the current church, which explains the location on a ridge above the modern village. The church is a humble building, though it still boasts a west tower, nave aisles and transepts. The earliest part is the south arcade, dating to c. 1300. This has an alarming lean, apparently cause by the removal of roof tie beams in the 16th Century. Several attempts have been made in the centuries since to shore it up (most recently in 2003). 

The remainder of the nave, including the north arcade, dates from later in the 14th century. The west bay of the north aisle is blocked off; the equivalent bay on the east aisle was demolished, the western bay now containing a window. The tower is late 14th / early 15th century in date, in the Perpendicular style. the nave has a splendid wagon roof, rebuilt in 2005 to replace the Mediaeval original.

The chancel was rebuilt in brick in 1685 by the first Sir George Downing, and completed by the second. Beneath the chancel is the burial vault of the Downing family - founders of Downing College, Cambridge, and after whom Downing Street in London is named.

The square font with corner shafts, is Norman, and older than the church; records attest to a vicarage and benefice in existence in the 1200s. Both the pulpit (actually, more of a reading desk) and the pews are Jacobean. The south transept has pretty cinquefoiled niches flanking the east widow, and a piscina with a cinquefoil ogee head.

The parish has two services a month, one a eucharist, and hosts a classic car event every year.

All Saints, Church Lane, Croydon, Cambridgeshire SG8 0DL

St Nicholas, Arrington

Arrington grew up just off the Roman Road of Ermine Street, a Saxon settlement developing where the church was later built. In the 17th century, the village spread along the road itself, around a former coaching inn, and is now home to a population of 400.

The church was founded in the Saxon period; the village is mentioned in the Domesday Book, and the church is recorded in 1087. The present building was built largely in the 13th century, with a surprisingly large and elaborate chancel, and a nave that was once aisled; the outline of the north and south arcades are clearly visible outside, when they were bricked up in the 16th or 17th centuries. 

The windows in the chancel are the originals, in the early Early Gothic style with Y and intersecting tracery. Those in the nave are a mix of Decorated and Perpendicular Gothic, reset from the aisles. The tower is also 13th century, but the upper bell chamber was rebuilt in brick in the 16th century.

The interior is a single space, heavily whitewashed, with no chancel arch. There is a tub font, charming primitive benches, and a small 19th Century organ; but the star of the show is the double piscina, with two intersecting arches, similar to that in the Chapel of Jesus College, Cambridge.

The church hosts a Communion service on two Sundays a month, a weekly Morning Prayer and an additional service in the nearby Community Hall. It is open daily, throughout the year, for visits and prayer.

St Nicholas, Church Lane, Arrington SG8 0BH

Holy Trinity, Bottisham

St Mary the Virgin, Guilden Morden

St Peter & St Paul, Steeple Morden

St Mary the Virgin, St Neots

 

I was half expecting the parish church of St Neot's to be named after the town's namesake Saint, but discovered that he was actually patron of the long-disappeared Priory, which was situated north west of the Market Square. Instead, the town's impressive church is named more conventionally, if less colourfully, after St Mary the Virgin.

The church dates back at least as far as the 12th Century, a lancet window in the chancel being of late 12th or early 13th century date. But the building we see now is largely the result of a major rebuilding in the 15th century, in the Perpendicular Gothic style; indeed, it is one of the largest late mediaeval churches in the county. 

The rebuilt chancel, with the nave, aisles and chapels were complete by 1486, and the porches added by 1489. The impressive, heavily buttressed tower, adorned with a fine set of pinnacles, was finished by 1535. Standing 135ft high, this is a major local landmark, and reminds me of the fine Perpendicular towers of my native counri of Somerset.

The interior has a nave of five bays of slender Perpendicular piers, as well as an extraordinarily tall tower arch. The roofs of the nave, aisles and chapels are original, and include carvings of angels and animals, including a mermaid, lions, camels, birds, a hare, a dog and an elephant. The church also retains several early 16th century screens at the west end of the aisles, and between the chapels and the chancel. The rather crude octagonal font is thought to be from the 12th Century. Most of the remaining woodwork is Victorian, but the choir has three stalls with carved misericords of late 15th or early 16th century origin, brought from Milton Ernest in Bedfordshire.

Despite these riches, perhaps the star of its show is a complete scheme of Victorian glass, depicting scenes from the life of Christ, from his birth to the Ascension. Each of the scenes takes advantage of the large windows, with lively details. These are mostly by Hardman & Co, with some by Clayton & Bell. Of exceptional quality, three of the windows were sent to the Parish Exhibition in 1867 and one to the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876.

For a large town church of its age, it is peculiarly devoid of monuments, with the notable exception of the huge memorial in the chancel to G W Rowley and his wife (d. 1886). Rising 30ft, this is a forest of statuary, niches, canopies and pinnacles. Mrs Rowley's effigy is hidden behind an equally elaborate wrought iron screen, now heavily gilded.

The church has regular eucharists and a monthly family service, as well as occasional concerts.

St Mary the Virgin, Church St, St Neots, PE19 2BU

St Mary, Fowlmere