Читать книгу Betjeman’s Best British Churches - Richard Surman - Страница 11
ОглавлениеMARCH: ST WENDREDA – double hamer-beam roof with its host of flying angels
Modern Cambridgeshire includes the historic county of Huntingdonshire and the Soke of Peterborough, although all three areas retain distinctive characteristics, and Huntingdonshire continues to insist on its separate identity. Perhaps because Cambridge University and Ely Cathedral are so outstandingly beautiful, people underrate the county that contains them. Cambridgeshire scenery is nowhere obvious or dramatic – the famed Gog Magog Hills, south of Cambridge, are modest, nowhere reaching 300 feet. The southern part of the county is rolling and chalky, giving surprisingly fine and wide views. In the north, the fens dominate, where the eye sees mostly sky.
As Olive Cook, author and champion of rural preservation, wrote in Cambridgeshire: Aspects of a County in 1953, ‘It would not be possible to find elsewhere so unexpected a contrast between the chalk uplands with their carpets of delicate grasses and rare flowers, wild yet amiable, and the expanse of the Fens, dyked, drained and filled, yet still boundless, awe-inspiring and alien.’ The towers and spires of the 14th century, the great time of church building here, show the sense of skyline peculiar to the Middle Ages and still dominate much of the landscape, despite the inevitable impact of 21st-century light industrial development, and the unstoppable tide of suburban housing developments.
Cambridgeshire is not a unity. In the south it is like its neighbours, Essex, Suffolk and Hertfordshire. Steep-roofed cottages are reed-thatched, and their walls colour-washed. Parish boundaries are long strips, parallel to the Anglo-Saxon Devil’s Dyke and so designed as to make best use of a variety of resources on every strip. In this rolling scenery are country houses in well-wooded parks, and the thatched villages, which are seen best in sunlight when their colour washes are shown up, cluster round flint churches whose mouldings and carvings are of hard chalk. In the west of the county a coarse rubble is used for the churches.
Until 1836 the northern part of the county, the Isle of Ely, was separate from Cambridgeshire. Until the 17th century, when the Fens were drained on a grand scale, the Isle was mostly shallow water with monastic settlements and churches on raised banks and islands. The greatest of these is the Benedictine Abbey of Ely itself. Whittlesey, Sutton, Thorney, Swaffham Prior, Wisbech and St Wendreda’s March are other examples of island or peninsular medieval churches which rose over the shallow water like ships, made of limestone from Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire. Beside them, the houses and churches of modern Fen settlements seem mean and unimportant.
In 1839 two Cambridge undergraduates, J. M. Neale and Benjamin Webb, formed the Camden Society for the restoration of old churches on what were thought ‘correct’ principles – the abolition of box pews, the removal of plaster and whitewash, the adornment of the sanctuary with stained glass and colour, and the promotion of 13th–14th century Gothic (Early English and Decorated) above every other style. Yet Cambridgeshire remained Low Church with a good deal of Perpendicular Tudor cement affixed to crumbling fabrics. The Camden movement was not without its effect on local churches, though its influence spread later all over England. The Cambridgeshire churches, for this and other reasons, were subject to more than usually vigorous Victorian retooling and refurbishing.
SWAFFHAM PRIOR: ST MARY – inside the late 12th- / early 13th-century tower
Historically, Huntingdonshire was small – the third-smallest old county in England – and is now a local authority district of Cambridgeshire. Its scenery is uneventful, either flat or very gently rolling; it has few recognized ‘beauty spots’. Perhaps because of this, Huntingdonshire has been less able to defend itself than others against the more hideous and cheap manifestations of modern ‘progress’. Bisected by the A1 from north to south, the soulless anonymity and the garish adjuncts of motor traffic have slashed the gentle landscape across and across; though many of the aerodromes and abandoned wartime installations that irritated Betjeman have long since gone. And, of course, in a county where there is so much sky in the landscape, pylons and poles are particularly intrusive.
Yet the Huntingdonshire district still has much beauty. In the west and south its remote, hilly landscape has many oaks and ash trees. The Huntingdonshire elms (ulmus glabra) originated here in the mid-8th century. The churches and cottages in the west and south are of yellowish-grey limestone and approach the excellence of those in neighbouring Northants. From St Neots to St Ives, near the slow windings of the sinuous Ouse, are willowy meadows and villages of reed-thatched cottages where the churches are the only old stone buildings, the stone having been brought here by water in medieval times. The north-east is fen: ‘When first drained (and much Hunts. fen was drained in the last century) the spongy peat stood some feet above the rivers and channels, but it has so shrunk that a water-course may now be higher than your head. It is a new land, and though the soil is rich, much of it coloured with flowers and vegetables, it has a bleak empty look. The villages are modern and poor…’ (Andrew Young, A Prospect of Britain, 1956).
BARNACK: ST JOHN THE BAPTIST – 11th-century carving of Christ in Majesty
Huntingdonshire has five attractive old towns. St Neots, St Ives, Huntingdon, linked with the old red brick of Godmanchester by a bridge and meadows, and Kimbolton – two parallel streets, one Georgian and the other medieval, with the great Vanbrugh house of the Dukes of Manchester at one end of them. The brick industry is long established in the district, and old red-brick houses make a happy contrast with silvery medieval stone and humbler plaster-walled cottages and inns.
When it is remote, Huntingdonshire is more remote and countrified than anywhere in England, and for Betjeman there was always a strong atmosphere in the county of the Civil War. The towns, one feels, stand for Parliament, the villages for the King. Oliver Cromwell was born at Huntingdon, where a chapel spire is higher than the church towers. He has a statue at St Ives and several of his chief supporters came from the county. The 17th-century High Church movement is represented by George Herbert, who rebuilt and refurnished his village church at Leighton Bromswold in 1620, and Nicholas Ferrar, who founded an Anglican religious community, of which Little Gidding church survives as a tender memorial. In the Civil War, Barnabas Oley, Vicar of Great Gransden, smuggled the Cambridge College plate through Huntingdonshire to Charles I at Nottingham.
The Soke of Peterborough – traditionally associated with the Diocese and city of Peterborough – is now a unitary authority within the ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire. In the east it is fen country, becoming hilly and wooded as it stretches westward to Stamford. Here lies the park and immense Elizabethan house of Burghley. The Manor of Burghley and other lands in the Soke (together with wide jurisdictional rights over the whole area) formerly belonged to the abbots of Peterborough, and were granted by Elizabeth I to her treasurer Lord Burghley.
The industrialized city of Peterborough is not half so dull as those who pass through it in the train may think. It is a grey town – grey limestone, lightish-grey and grey-yellow brick. The west front of the Cathedral was described as ‘the grandest and finest in Europe’. Its Norman nave and roof and the splendid ‘New Building’ in Perpendicular at the east end, the tree-shaded ramifications of the close, are all hidden from the main road; so is the excellent local museum.
The churches of the Soke and their villages are almost all built in local limestone, the churches with stone spires. Vestiges of Norman work in many of the churches recall the influence of the Benedictine Abbey.
BARNACK: ST JOHN THE BAPTIST – as an ‘inspired architectural hotch-potch’, it typifies what’s so appealing about the English parish church
ALCONBURY † St Peter and St Paul
4m/6km N.W. of Huntingdon
OS TL184761 GPS 52.3703N, 0.2615W
The village is watered by Alconbury Brook running down the long village green, with the church on the northern fringe of a cluster of colourwash-and-tile cottages. The inside of the 13th-century chancel is noble and serene, enhanced by an attached and embattled arcade along each side, the 15th-century roof marrying well with the older work. There is good contrast between the plaster of the chancel and the pebbly walls of the nave, where the plaster was stripped. The tower has one of the county’s many good broach spires.
BABRAHAM † St Peter
7m/11km S.E. of Cambridge
OS TL509505 GPS 52.1324N, 0.2041E
St Peter’s occupies a secluded riverside site beside a Jacobean-style mansion of 1832. Its plain unbuttressed W. tower is claimed as pre-Conquest but is more probably 13th-century; there is a lofty Perpendicular nave and assorted woodwork. The Bennet monument in the S. aisle (second half of 17th century) is highly individual and attractive, and John Piper designed the E. window glass.
BALSHAM † Holy Trinity
6m/10km N.W. of Haverhill
OS TL587508 GPS 52.1332N, 0.3185E
Here is a fine, large, early medieval tower, and a dignified, somewhat austere, nave dating from the rectorship of John of Sleford, d. 1401; richly carved choir stalls were also commissioned by him. His brass is in the chancel, which is separated from the nave by a late medieval rood screen with loft.
BARNACK † St John the Baptist
3m/4km S.E. of Stamford
OS TF079050 GPS 52.6326N, 0.4066W
Originally a grand Saxon church, as evidenced by the spectacular stone stripwork decoration of the tower and the magnificent tower arch, the church has since acquired the characteristics of the succeeding centuries, and so is typical of that inspired architectural hotch-potch which is the English parish church. The Barnack stone quarries fed the greatest of the medieval building projects in the Nene Valley and farther afield. In the N. aisle is a beautiful late Saxon or early Norman carving of Christ in Majesty.
BOTTISHAM: HOLY TRINITY – 18th-century monument to Sir Roger and Lady Elizabeth Jenyns
BARTLOW † St Mary
5m/8km W. of Haverhill
OS TL585451 GPS 52.0823N, 0.3132E
Much restored by Rowe in 1879, there is a Norman round tower, and inside extensive 15th-century wall-paintings, the finest of which is of a dragon – ‘ferocious and antediluvially large’ was Pevsner’s impression.
BASSINGBOURN † St Peter & St Paul
3m/4km N.W. of Royston
OS TL330440 GPS 52.0790N, 0.0596W
A fine mid-14th-century Decorated chancel of individual design contains much flowing tracery and widespread use of ogees, notably on the sedilia and piscina. There is a good rood screen and a poignant monument to Henry Butler, d. 1647.
BOTTISHAM † Holy Trinity
6m/10km E. of Cambridge
OS TL545604 GPS 52.2209N, 0.2612E
Perhaps the best of the county’s churches. An unmistakeable sight from the nearby A14, it is mainly 13th- and early 14th-century with W. tower and tall galilee porch, finely moulded arcades, stone chancel screen and wooden parcloses. Here also is the indent for what must have been the very sumptuous brass of Elias de Bekyngham, said to be the only honest judge in the reign of Edward I. There are many 16th- to 18th-century monuments.
BUCKDEN † St Mary
4m/6km S.W. of Huntingdon
OS TL192676 GPS 52.2941N, 0.2526W
The church has a graceful steeple, overshadowed by the 15th-century brick tower of Buckden Palace nearby. The bulk of the nave is in a good, sober Perpendicular, and the double-storey S. porch has a workmanlike vault. Inside, the plaster has been scraped away showing the coarse rubble beneath and throwing into prominence the ashlar of a lofty arcade. Some interesting 16th-century panels with Passion scenes have been imported, and there are 15th-century roofs and painted glass.
BURWELL † St Mary
4m/6km N.W. of Newmarket
OS TL589660 GPS 52.2697N, 0.3282E
This is excellent Perpendicular. The stately nave, roofed in 1464, stands as a monument to the 15th-century imagination, all line and glass with splendid carved roofs, blank traceried panels, and slim shafts. The exterior is best seen when approached from Cambridge by the Swaffhams; all is unified 15th-century apart from the bottom of the Norman tower.
CAMBRIDGE † Holy Sepulchre
Bridge Street
OS TL448588 GPS 52.2084N, 0.1190E
One of four remaining round churches in England, it is impressive without and within. Of 12th-century origin, the church was mainly rebuilt in the 15th century, then extensively restored by Salvin in 1842, when some ‘ecclesiological’ fittings were introduced.
CAMBRIDGE † St Bene’t
Bene’t Street
OS TL448582 GPS 52.2037N, 0.1183E
The 10th-century tower with typical Saxon long and short quoins is perhaps the county’s oldest extant fabric. The tower arch has cavorting Saxon beasts; the nave and aisles, c. 1300, have suffered from heavy Victorian restoration.
CASTOR † St Kyneburgha
2m/3km W. of Peterborough
OS TL124985 GPS 52.5730N, 0.3419W
This small village stands near a Roman settlement and in Norman times was evidently still important, to judge by the fine tower of the period, crowned by a stumpy Germanic spire. Few Norman cathedrals have a more richly ornamented steeple than this, with all four walls of the tower panelled in two stages of characteristic Romanesque detail. There are fragments of Saxon carving and a rare inscription recording the dedication of the church in 1124.
CHIPPENHAM † St Margaret
4m/6km N. of Newmarket
OS TL663698 GPS 52.3012N, 0.4383E
Set in a model village, St Margaret’s church is mostly a 14th–15th-century post-fire rebuilding; there is a delightful interior with a memorable 15th-century wall-painting of St Christopher, and good Perpendicular window tracery.
DULLINGHAM † St Mary the Virgin
4m/6km S. of Newmarket
OS TL631576 GPS 52.1934N, 0.3856E
This is an Estate-village setting; flint and field stone, mainly Perpendicular, with a fine N. porch. Inside is an unexpected and rather incongruous late Victorian pulpit of green Italian marble, and numerous 18th- and 19th-century Jeaffreson monuments.
ELSWORTH † Holy Trinity
7m/11km S.E. of Huntingdon
OS TL318635 GPS 52.2546N, 0.0697W
The church is set high, overlooking this pretty village with a stream coursing through the green, and has good Decorated work with much Reticulated tracery. There are fine Tudor choir stalls with linenfold carving, and a curious mid-18th-century Ionic reredos, moved by the Victorians to the W. end.
ELY † St Mary
14m/23km N.E. of Cambridge
OS TL538802 GPS 52.3986N, 0.2599E
Of the church built by Bishop Eustace (1198–1215), the seven-bay Early English nave arcade remains, as does the finely carved N. doorway: all of excellent quality.
FLETTON † St Margaret
S. district of Peterborough
OS TL197970 GPS 52.5584N, 0.2350W
This has a good share of Norman work, not over-plentiful in the county, but is chiefly remarkable for the series of 9th-century Saxon carvings now reset in the chancel. These are wonderful products of the Mercian school, and their birds, beasts and patterns bear comparison with the glories of Breedon-on-the-Hill, Leicestershire.
ICKLETON: ST MARY MAGDALENE – frescoes above the Norman arcade depict the Passion of Christ in the upper tier and the martyrdom of saints below, in the space between the arches
FORDHAM † St Peter and St Mary Magdalene
5m/8km N. of Newmarket
OS TL633707 GPS 52.3103N, 0.3947E
The Lady Chapel is the pièce de résistance – strangely set over a vaulted porch, altered in the 15th century, but redolent of the apogee of the Decorated style. Colourful Edwardian decorations enliven the chancel.
GLATTON † St Nicholas
7m/12km S. of Peterborough
OS TL153861 GPS 52.4607N, 0.3035W
St Nicholas has a noble ashlar-faced Perpendicular W. tower with frieze, battlements and pinnacles with animal supporters. Inside are arcades of c. 1300, with scalloped capitals, benches with carved poppyheads, wall-paintings and a vaulted vestry.
GREAT PAXTON † Holy Trinity
3m/4km N.E. of St Neots across R. Ouse
OS TL209641 GPS 52.2624N, 0.2285W
A dark and cavernous church of the Conqueror’s time conceived on a thrilling scale – the arches of the crossing stupendous when compared with the man-sized nave arcade. There’s no hint of all this outside, since the central tower has disappeared and there is now a stubby 14th-century tower at the W. end. The nave rising towards the E. is an original Saxon feature and provides a link with contemporary German churches.
HARLTON † Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
6m/10km S.W. of Cambridge
OS TL387525 GPS 52.1536N, 0.0262E
The church – a complete 14th-century rebuild of clunch and field flint – and adjoining Manor Farm make a pleasant group. Inside is a stately instance of Decorated-Perpendicular transition, with a fine stone screen, late 14th-century reredos, statue niches, crocketed canopies and a good alabaster wall-monument to Sir Henry Fryer, who died in duel in 1631.
ICKLETON: ST MARY MAGDALENE – some of the kneelers on the pews record the momentous events in the life of the church and parish, including the 1979 fire and subsequent restoration
HAUXTON † St Edmund
4m/6km S. of Cambridge
OS TL435521 GPS 52.1492N, 0.0973E
This is a lovely and simple church, whose Norman nave and chancel are separated by a grand arch. A well-preserved wall-painting of St Thomas à Becket, c. 1250, fills a niche on the S. wall.
HILDERSHAM † Holy Trinity
10m/16km S.E. of Cambridge
OS TL545488 GPS 52.1162N, 0.2556E
Standing in a woodland setting overlooking the River Grant, the church is worth a visit to savour the effect of its attractive and characteristic 13th-century plan. The Victorians left their mark here, not least in the richly frescoed chancel. There are brasses to the Paris family in the chancel but, alas, the pair of lifesize wooden effigies, c. 1300 and once such a feature of the church, were stolen in 1977.
HUNTINGDON † All Saints
Corner of High Street and George Street
OS TL237718 GPS 52.3307N, 0.1850W
One of two surviving medieval churches in the town, and set close by pleasing Georgian town houses, All Saints is a 15th-century rebuilding of an earlier 13th-century church, with the 14th-century tower retained. There is pleasing Perpendicular tracery; the nave, aisles, chancel and porch are all embattled. Oliver Cromwell was baptised here.
ICKLETON † St Mary Magdalene
10m/10km S. of Cambridge
OS TL494438 GPS 52.0729N, 0.1795E
In a village-green setting and victim of a horrid fire in 1979, this church was yet the beneficiary, since it uncovered a remarkable series of 12th-century frescoes. Already celebrated for its Saxon-Norman arcades, the paintings of the Life of Christ mark Ickleton as an apogee of the rural Romanesque.
LITTLE GIDDING: ST JOHN – the narrow nave and chancel are fitted out as a miniature college chapel, with wooden panelling, Classical arcading and a ribbed barrel-vault roof
ISLEHAM † St Andrew
8m/13km S.E. of Ely
OS TL643744 GPS 52.3431N, 0.4115E
Spacious and cruciform, St Andrew’s is Decorated without, save for the W. tower by Street. The nave is resplendently panelled, clerestoried and roofed to unusual design by the mercantile family of Peyton, 1495, to whom there are some monuments. There is also a very fine Jacobean communion rail.
KIMBOLTON † St Andrew
7m/11km N.W. of St Neots
OS TL099678 GPS 52.2979N, 0.3894W
A large town church with a 14th-century tower and broach spire. A delightful Decorated oak screen with paintings, c. 1500, stands between the chancel and S. chapel, which is dominated by Montagu monuments. There is also stained glass by Louis Tiffany, 1901.
KIRTLING † All Saints
5m/8km S.E. of Newmarket
OS TL686576 GPS 52.1910N, 0.4664E
Here was once a Tudor mansion built by the Norths; the surviving gatehouse and moated site are impressive. The Norman S. doorway to the church bears a carving of Christ in Majesty on the tympanum; the door ironwork is also Norman. There are good North hatchments and monuments in the 16th-century brick-built family chapel.
LEIGHTON BROMSWOLD † St Mary
8m/13km W. of Huntingdon
OS TL115752 GPS 52.3642N, 0.3629W
The nave and tower of this 13th-century and later church were rebuilt in 1626 by the poet George Herbert, when St Mary’s ‘was so decayed, so little and so useless that the parishioners could not meet to perform their duty to God in public prayer and praises’. The old aisles were sacrificed and the new nave was married to the medieval transepts, which perform their proper function in giving breadth and freedom to the whole design. The church had in fact become a true Protestant ‘preaching space’. The roof design is bold with sturdy tie beams.
LEVERINGTON † St Leonard
1m/2km N.W. of Wisbech
OS TF444114 GPS 52.6811N, 0.1359E
A four-staged tower of many styles crowned with a Victorian spire marks out this Silt Fen church, whose Perpendicular nave supports a later clerestory. A good 14th-century porch is two-storeyed and decorated with a fine carved frieze underneath an elaborate battlement.
LITTLE ABINGTON † St Mary
9m/15km S.E. of Cambridge
OS TL529491 GPS 52.1199N, 0.2326E
Restored by St Aubyn, 1885, the church is Early Norman, especially the N. and S. nave doorways with simple chip carving. There is Kempe glass, 1901, in the chancel depicting the Adoration of the Magi.
LITTLE GIDDING † St John
10m/16km N.W. of Huntingdon
OS TL127816 GPS 52.4211N, 0.3441W
In undulating country relieved from the extreme flatness of the Fens and sheltered by a grove of trees, the tiny church survives the depopulated village and the hall, now levelled. Little Gidding is linked with Nicholas Ferrar and his unique experiment in the contemplative life. From outside the red brick is disappointing, but within there is richness in a collegiate style, the fabric mostly of the early 18th-century. Embroidered texts on the walls quote from Ferrar and from T. S. Eliot, who visited here and made a poem of his recollection of that event, which formed the last of the Four Quartets. The lines read more like an admonition on the wall than in their original context: ‘You are not here to verify, / Instruct yourself, or inform curiosity / Or carry report. You are here to kneel / Where prayer has been valid.’
MADINGLEY † St Mary Magdalene
4m/6km N.W. of Cambridge
OS TL395603 GPS 52.2236N, 0.0409E
An idyllic park setting above a little lake; the tower parapet incorporates Saxon tomb fragments. A fair mixed bag of fittings includes a 14th-century bell, and there are monuments to the Hyndes and Cottons. Interesting for its location as much as the building.
MARCH † St Wendreda
14m/22km E. of Peterborough
OS TL415952 GPS 52.5364N, 0.0850E
The crowning glory of St Wendreda’s is the double hammer-beam roof with a host of angels; the finest in the county. The church is all Decorated and Perpendicular, apart from the chancel by W. Smith, 1872.
ORTON LONGUEVILLE † Holy Trinity
S.W. district of Peterborough
OS TL168965 GPS 52.5540N, 0.2783W
This is a 13th- and 14th-century church with W. tower built in 1672. In the N. chapel is an early 17th-century funeral helm with vizor and spike; in the N. aisle a fine early 16th-century wall-painting of the upper half of St Christopher.
RAMSEY † St Thomas of Canterbury
10m/16km S.E. of Peterborough
OS TL290851 GPS 52.4491N, 0.1022W
The church is a monastic relic from the old abbey and was actually built as a hospitum, standing on the fringe of the compact little town. The body of the structure is early 12th-century, and the vaulted chancel late-Norman; the W. tower dates from 1672. The presence of a 13th-century font and re-used materials of that date in the tower suggest parochial use from that time. There is late glass by Morris & Co.
ST NEOTS † St Mary
8m/12km S.W. of Huntingdon
OS TL184601 GPS 52.2269N, 0.2670W
Tucked away on the fringe of this small market community, the church is a luxurious 15th-century building with perhaps the finest tower in the county. The church is faced in ironstone and pebbles with ashlar dressings, an agreeable contrast in colour and texture. The roof is almost flat, not over-elaborate but very English and most satisfying. Almost everything a good town church should be.
SNAILWELL † St Peter
3m/4km N. of Newmarket
OS TL642675 GPS 52.2818N, 0.4059E
Set against a backdrop of trees, the church has a 12th-century round tower with tall belfry lights. There is a good deal of 14th-century work, a Perpendicular clerestory and a hammer-beam roof.
SWAFFHAM PRIOR: ST MARY – two windows in the north aisle commemorate the First and Second World Wars with images and textual messages of resolute strength
SOHAM † St Andrew
5m/8km S.E. of Ely
OS TL593731 GPS 52.3335N, 0.3370E
Celebrated 15th-century tower rising high above the fenland, the top resplendent with flushwork, battlements and pinnacles.
SUTTON † St Andrew
6m/10km W. of Ely
OS TL448789 GPS 52.3897N, 0.1269E
The tower, with its odd two-stage octagonal lantern, stands majestically on a ridge above the fen. Bishop Barnet of Ely began the rebuilding c. 1370, and there is good Decorated tracery.
SWAFFHAM PRIOR † St Cyriac
5m/8km W. of Newmarket
OS TL568638 GPS 52.2509N, 0.2959E
Churches Conservation Trust
Two churches in one churchyard stand on a little hillock above the village street. Both are large with good towers. St Cyriac has a distinctive late 15th-century octagonal upper stage with flushwork parapet.
SWAFFHAM PRIOR † St Mary
5m/8km W. of Newmarket
OS TL568639 GPS 52.2512N, 0.2956E
St Mary, next to St Cyriac (see previous entry) is 12th-century, partly octagonal and formerly crowned by a stone spire. Entrance is through the W. tower, with views up through the stages.
THORNEY ABBEY † St Mary and St Botolph
7m/11km N.E. of Peterborough
OS TF282042 GPS 52.6205N, 0.1071W
Its atmosphere is ascribable in part to fine trees growing in and around the little town. The church is a fragment (five bays of the nave) of the Romanesque abbey, taken over as a parish church in 1638. The E. end was added by Blore in Norman style in 1840–1, and includes an effective window copied from glass in Canterbury Cathedral.
WESTLEY WATERLESS † St Mary the Less
5m/8km S. of Newmarket
OS TL617562 GPS 52.1805N, 0.3650E
It stands high on the chalk, and has some of the deepest wells in the county. The neat little church has lost its small round tower, and the west gable wall that replaced it was rebuilt in the mid-19th century. It is in an original if somewhat finicky Decorated idiom. There is a good early 14th-century brass to Sir John and Lady de Creke.
WHITTLESEY † St Mary
5m/8km E. of Peterborough
OS TL269969 GPS 52.5557N, 0.1282W
The church has the best tower and spire in the county; it can be seen for miles around, though it is rather dwarfed by the forest of chimneys to the left as you approach by road from the S. There is a selection of stained glass and a monument to General Sir Harry Smith, d. 1860, by G. C. Adams of London, in the Westminster Abbey tradition. Another monument in the chancel, to Elizabeth Kentish, d. 1792, was designed in Rome by her sorrowing husband, Richard Kentish.
WIMPOLE † St Andrew
6m/10km N. of Royston
OS TL336509 GPS 52.1411N, 0.0484W
A church in the squire’s back yard, 14th-century in origin but almost entirely rebuilt by Henry Flitcroft in 1749. It was restored in the Decorated style in 1887. Fine 14th-century heraldic glass is in the N. chapel, and there is a remarkable series of monuments by Scheemakers, Banks, Bacon, Flaxman, Westmacott and others.
WISBECH † St Peter and St Paul
12m/19km S.W. of King’s Lynn
OS TF462095 GPS 52.6640N, 0.1618E
With handsome 18th-century and later houses on the ‘brinks’ fronting the River Nene, Wisbech cuts a dash under favourable conditions. The large town church has three nave arcades and is rather dark within. There is a bit of everything from the 12th century onwards, but the early 16th century provided the free-standing N. bell-tower and the ornate S.E. vestry, perhaps originally a guild chapel. Numerous wall-plaques include one by Joseph Nollekens. The reredos depicting the Last Supper is by Salviati, 1885, to a design by Basset-Smith.
WITTERING: ALL SAINTS – sculpted head in the north aisle arcade
WITTERING † All Saints
3m/4km S.E. of Stamford
OS TF056020 GPS 52.6057N, 0.4416W
This lovely two-celled late Saxon church has a tremendous chancel arch and original nave and chancel quoins. The good Norman nave arcade has roll mouldings and zigzags. There is a late 13th-/early 14th-century W. tower.
YAXLEY † St Peter
4m/6km S. of Peterborough
OS TL177918 GPS 52.5118N, 0.2671W
There is some agreeable colour in the village, with black-and-white timber cottages thrown against brick and tile. The church, noble and large for the size of the community, has an elegant steeple with flying buttresses crowning an impressive composition. The many components – aisles, transepts and porch – mass together most fittingly. The plan is complex, with an aisled chancel and transepts, all of differing roof levels. Inside, there is a series of fragmented medieval narrative wall-paintings and a good 15th-century East Anglian chancel screen. The E. window, altar and reredos are by Sir Ninian Comper. Outside is a good scattering of carved figures, grotesques and gargoyles.
