Church Directory

A largely thirteenth-century church except for the south doorway. This has Norman zigzag decoration although the arch is pointed. Battlemented west tower with a small spirelet. The interior is spacious and light-filled. The north arcade may is late twelfth-century; south arcade early thirteenth-century. It is interesting to notice the differences between them. There are broad transepts that seem to have been worked on at a later time. These and the chancel were originally vaulted.

Go inside to see the East Window designed by John Piper and look out for the ‘resurrection’ monument to Richard and Sir Thomas Bennet of the later 17th cent, an unusually late date for this type of monument, in the north chancel.

A stately church with splendid fittings. Immediately in view as you enter is the font and its tall spire-like cover. The nave is high and light. The fourteenth-century chancel, built by John Sleford, contains a wonderful set of carved clergy stalls. On the floor in front of the altar are the large monumental brasses of Sleford and a later benefactor, John Blodwell. The screen between nave and chancel also dates from the fourteenth-century. It has a rare surviving vaulted loft on top, added probably in the late fifteenth-century.

It is an excellent example of a 1970s church centre. Now old enough to look old fashioned but not old enough, yet, to be historic.

A substantial church with plenty of points of interest inside including part of a wall painting of the 3 quick and the 3 dead on the south arcade and a Jacobean pulpit with tester above it.

A circular Norman tower and a wealth of 15th century wall paintings.

A long thin church with a medieval rood screen with very faint signs of its original decoration. There are also remnants of 14th century wall paintings in the church.

Like St. Lawrence, Bythorn, All Saints began life in the 12th century with a small aisleless nave and chancel. First the chancel was rebuilt in the 13th century, then the nave around 1330. They were both rebuilt again in the 15th century with the nave heightened and embattled. Two surviving sculpted corbels suggest the original roof line but the roof was renewed again in 1674 with the date clearly carved into the easternmost beam. The date 1938 in the westernmost beam indicates when the local architect S. Inskip Ladds repaired the roof. The west tower and broach spire were completed in 1370. The chancel was heightened during a thorough restoration of the church by the architect W. Slater in 1869. That date is cleverly hidden in the interior stonework of the chancel.

There is an impressive 13th century double aumbry in the north wall of the chancel and a squint in the south aisle. The 13th century font with a new wooden cover has been moved to the front of the nave but fortunately the pyramidion Jacobean font cover still survives. Again, as at Bythorn there are two exceptional scratch Mass dials surviving on the church’s south elevation.

The most perfect example in Cambridgeshire of the Perpendicular ideal of the glasshouse church.

St. Lawrence probably originated as a small aisleless church in the 12th century. What is today visible is the result of the rebuilding of the 4 bay nave and chancel in the late 13th to 14th centuries. The aisles were added in approximately 1300. First the north aisle with alternating round and octagonal columns. Then the south aisle with elegant quatrefoil columns. The embattled clerestory was added in the 15th century and the original pitch of a lower roof is visible on the west wall of the nave. The tower and splay footed spire date to the mid 14th century, but was sadly reduced in height and capped in 1960 due to a partial collapse. The plan is completed with the addition of a possible 16th century chantry chapel on the north side of the chancel. The church underwent a thorough restoration in the 1870s.

There is a complete set of piscina, sedilia and aumbry in the chancel. Interestingly both aisles contain squints. A font with 16th century octagonal bowl stands by the south door. Outside are two well preserved ‘scratch’ dials meant originally to indicate the time of the Mass.

The building opened in 2009 and had an annexe added in 2019.

A splendid church designed by GF Bodley in the 1860s. The building is notable for the interior decorations by famous Victorian artists, including William Morris. It has suffered long periods of disuse.

When I was a student in the 1970s this church looked so dull as to be almost invisible. It has come alive this century and has stong links with Anglia Ruskin University.