St Mary, Eynesbury, St Neots, Cambridgeshire
And so to the very last parish church in Cambridgeshire. It could be reported that it has taken me extended to total this county than any other, for the reason that I was 1st taken into a Cambridgeshire church to be baptised fifty-seven yrs ago at the age of two months. Be that as it may perhaps, I commenced visiting the Cambridgeshire church buildings in earnest about four many years in the past, partly as a result of an enthusiasm for spouse and children record. Additional than 30 Cambridgeshire parishes and their churches were homes to my ancestors of the past 4 generations. Here, they were baptised, married and despatched on their remaining journey to the grave.
Cambridgeshire is a curious county. A pleasing parallelogram in form, stretching some forty miles from corner to corner, it has only existed in its existing kind because 1974, when it was established by the union of the two short-lived counties of Huntingdon & Peterborough and Cambridgeshire & the Isle of Ely. These experienced been created in their transform in 1965 out of four lesser counties, these becoming Huntingdonshire, the Soke of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely. The Isle was returning to its status of prior to the 1890s, when it had been hived off from Cambridgeshire for administrative needs. In advance of the 1890s, the Soke of Peterborough had been a portion of Northamptonshire. However with me? Great. The 1974 iteration of the county took in a solitary parish each from Bedfordshire and Essex, and then in the 1990s shed a single parish to Suffolk.
It all seems a little bit of a hotchpotch, and still it looks to work. Of all the amalgamated counties established in 1974, Cambridgeshire is the only 1 which has survived by community will. Avon and Humberside have been consigned to record, Leicestershire damaged up once again into its constituent sections. But in Cambridgeshire, the former county of Huntingdonshire has been authorized to endure as a neighborhood federal government district, as has the Soke of Peterborough which continues in expanded variety as the Peterborough unitary authority.
The metropolitan areas of Cambridge and Peterborough have both of those expanded spectacularly since 1965, and the county is the only non-metropolitan spot to have an elected mayor directing thousands and thousands of lbs to progress jobs. The inhabitants of about a million is split far more or less 50 %-and-half amongst city and rural settings. The west and south of the county are pretty prosperous, but the Fenland district in the north-east has deep pockets of poverty, as do the metropolitan areas of Cambridge and Peterborough.
I used the very first 20 yrs of my lifetime in Cambridgeshire, most of it in Cambridge, and it is nevertheless challenging not to assume of it as dwelling. And so this has given a special resonance to my journeys all around the county. Cambridgeshire’s church buildings are not impressive. In fact, it is challenging to identify a individual Cambridgeshire design at all, other than a liking for octagonal tower tops, and they are not so pretty abundant. But Cambridgeshire shares borders with a lot more other counties than any other English county, and the church buildings near these borders are likely to consider on the traits of the other county – massive, marshland churches up near Norfolk and Lincolnshire, tiny, homely church buildings down in the direction of Hertfordshire and Essex, grand Perpendicular churches by the Suffolk border, although west of Huntingdon the spired church buildings merge seamlessly into their Northamptonshire counterparts. Strikingly, Cambridgeshire’s really finest churches are really a great deal all near a border with one more county.
Of system, the county has two major medieval cathedrals at Peterborough and Ely, as effectively as a assortment of higher education chapels in Cambridge, some of which are medieval in origin, which includes the amazing chapel of King’s University, as superior as a cathedral. I have incorporated these on my journey, so by the time John and I obtained to the St Neots suburb of Eynesbury at a quarter to 4 on a late autumn afternoon I experienced previously frequented 314 Cambridgeshire church buildings. St Mary at Eynesbury would be the final parish church.
We hadn’t meant to be so late. We would arrived in St Neots at about two o’clock, all set to visit the a few town centre churches, all of which ahead of 1965 served separate towns. If Cambridgeshire is an odd amalgam, then St Neots is odder nonetheless. 5 cities and villages merge into each other in the south-west corner of the county to form St Neots, which, with far more than 40,000 folks, can assert to be ‘the major town in Cambridgeshire’ (Cambridge and Peterborough equally becoming cities of class). The parishes of St Neots city and Eynesbury kind the city centre, with the parish of Eaton Socon on the reverse lender of the Terrific Ouse, and Eaton Ford, which forms a part of the parish, to the north of it. Tiny Paxton, the poshest parish, keeps itself a little bit at arms duration, but yet again only by the width of a river. The Bedfordshire border runs together two sides of the town, and indeed, until eventually 1965 components of the town were being in Bedfordshire.
All 3 medieval church buildings in St Neots town centre are significant, and all three are committed to St Mary, which can be the bring about of some confusion. St Mary at St Neots and St Mary at Eynesbury are just a couple of hundred yards apart, separated by a tiny bridge, while St Mary at Eaton Socon sits fifty percent a mile or so to the south-west of them. The Eaton Socon church is heartily Evangelical in character, but the Eynesbury and St Neots town church buildings are equally in the Anglo-Catholic custom, and I am challenging place to think of two other these types of High churches so close jointly, especially in a small town, and looking at that they are in different benefices.
We experienced located the Eaton Socon church locked. The indicator seemed to counsel that if you tipped up in the early morning on a weekday you could locate the adjacent workplace open up, and presumably they just might permit you into the church, nevertheless as impressive as the Perpendicular exterior is there would not be significantly to see, as the church was gutted by hearth in 1930. The only old factor still left is the font. Still, this was our thirteenth church of the working day, and the initially 1 we experienced identified locked, so we weren’t way too let down.
We headed off and parked in the vicinity of the Eynesbury church. This was also locked, but there was a keyholder discover, so I rang him up. He appeared a tiny astonished, but advised us he’d be coming down in about an hour’s time, would that do? I claimed it would. We walked the quick distance up to the St Neots town church, which was open of course, as it is every single working day. One more big, spectacular Perpendicular church, but not enough within of it to fill an hour, so we drove out to Good Paxton and its late Saxon church, which John had not visited prior to, and then again into city to keep our appointment.
Eynesbury church is massive, although in contrast to its two sisters it is largely Early English in origin, with earlier arcades and later on aisles. The tower was considerably rebuilt in the 17th Century, and appears to be like it. The tower is most uncommon in that it is set versus the most easterly bay of the south aisle of the nave. The nave extends westwards to the street line, which is also versus the north facet, and so this points out the tower’s posture. Of the three churches, this is the most urban in physical appearance, and would not glimpse out of put in the centre of Cambridge.
The Early English inside is at first fairly dim, for as at St Neots, this church was practically fully glazed in the 19th Century with coloured glass, substantially of it by Hardman & Co. But, although the nave is just about as huge as at the other church, it does not truly feel like a barn. Somewhat, the decrease roof and the dusty furnishings give a feeling of muddle, although not in a terrible way. This is a tough and ready church which has formed alone to the requires and needs of its parishioners more than the generations. Arthur Blomfield led the 19th Century restoration, and his common atmosphere lies greatly listed here. The view east is to the great rood, the 1933 function of Albert Richardson who experienced just completed restoring Eaton Socon.
I was pleased to uncover that what I had taken for reticence in our host turned out to be a cheerful dryness. He was extremely welcoming, answered our issues, but left us just to wander close to as he pottered about. I requested him about the Anglo-catholic tradition of the two churches. He didn’t seem to assume it was unusual to discover two city church buildings in the Anglo-Catholic custom so near with each other, which I located unusually reassuring. “We like to feel we are just that small little bit greater than that good deal up the road,” he noticed. I questioned him how to pronounce Eynesbury (I have generally rhymed the 1st syllable with traces). “Well, we phone it Ains-bury,” he stated, “however I never know if that’s correct.”
Continue to we wandered. The 17th Century pulpit was declared unusually attractive by Pevsner’s revising editor, and he is ideal, the outcome partly the final result of its resetting on an stylish stem in the 1970s. Other woodwork involves the best medieval bench finishes we experienced viewed all day, carved with animals including pigs, bulls and a camel. Some of them show up to have been tailored and extra to relatively crudely, probably in the 17th Century. Could this have been an attempt to fix the final results of iconoclasm? If so, it would be fascinating to know what was there in advance of.
In the center of the nave is a modern day memorial slab to an Eynesbury parishioner who died two hundred yrs in the past. James Toller was just 20 one a long time old. What tends to make him impressive is that he was 1 of the tallest individuals who have at any time lived. Around this location lies all that is mortal of James Toller (The Eynesbury Large) who died 4th February 1818 aged 21 a long time, 8 toes 1½ inches in height. James Toller was born in the highway beside the church in 1797. Tall from an early age, in his teenagers he was exhibited in London and presented to the Russian Tsar. He was toured throughout Europe with a Dutchman called Simon Paap who was only twenty eight inches tall.
The excellent individuals of Eynesbury look to have taken care of James cheerfully as one of their very own, but his prevalent fame ultimately made it unachievable for him to dwell a typical lifetime, and, as his well being deteriorated, he expended his previous many years powering the substantial walls of the rectory garden. He was buried inside the church for, it was claimed, a bounty of £20 had been issued for his corpse by dissectionists. In his life time a peak of 8 foot six was claimed for James, but a measurement of his skeleton when it was reburied right after the 19th Century restoration of the interior gave a more true measurement, which was however extraordinary.
And so, that was it, the past parish church in Cambridgeshire, a suitably quirky location for a quirky county. There are nonetheless a great deal of non-conformist chapels to visit, as well as the chapels of cemeteries, faculties and other establishments of course. But for now, the satisfaction of a career accomplished accompanied me as we headed back to Ely station.
Posted by Simon Knott on 2018-11-11 08:36:44
Tagged: , Eynesbury , St Neots , Cambridgeshire , Cambs , Huntingdonshire , Hunts , church , East Anglia
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