City Centre Churches
March 23rd, 2009 by Caroline
Despite living in Cambridge for many years it always amazes me how much I don’t know about the city centre and that there are numerous historic buildings that I have yet to visit. For this reason our Simply Social tour of city centre Churches was most enjoyable and enlightening.
Starting at the Michael House Centre we first visited Great St Mary’s church. Known as the University Church, Great St Mary’s dominates Cambridge’s ancient market place. There was a church here in mediaeval times, but the present building dates from a thorough reconstruction, financed by Royal donations, between 1478 1536, although the tower was not finally completed until 1608.
The Church was used for University lectures, exams and other ceremonies and events.
Then onto Market Street and Holy Trinity Church.
The first church recorded as Holy Trinity Cambridge was set beside the old roman road and was nothing more than a small thatched and timbered building of no great aesthetic or architectural merit. This however burnt to ground in a ragging fire in 1174.
In 1189 a new Holy Trinity began rising from the ashes of its predecessor, this time, as the record goes, ‘of hard stone’. In 1350 parishioners, poor though they were, were able to raise the funds necessary to widen the nave and add two aisles to their church, north and south.
In the Reformation Period 1550-1750 Holy Trinity saw great growth. In c1620 a series of sermons were preached ‘at 1 of the clocke’ every Sunday by Richard Baxter, these were designed to appeal to members of the university and public alike. So many students began to desert Great St. Mary’s, for Holy Trinity that it was made out of bounds them. In 1616 a gallery had to be erected along the north side of the nave across the arches to accommodate the increased numbers.
Between the years of 1782-1836 Holy Trinity Church was to be the centre of revival of spiritual life in Cambridge. The ministry of Charles Simeon in Holy Trinity began when he was appointed vicar by the Bishop of Ely against the wishes of the churchwardens and congregation who disliked the earnestness of his manner and the evangelicalism of his message. When Simeon proposed starting an evening service the wardens actually locked the church doors against him. This kind of opposition continued for a number of years, but he never flinched and gradually the response to his ministry was so encouraging that he erected a gallery in the south transept at his own expense. He ended his life as the best known ‘character’ in Cambridge, his funeral in Kings College Chapel being attended by some two thousand people.
We then headed to a Church that I have never visited before. St Andrew the Great.
In the days when Cambridge still had gates, this was known as St Andrew without Barnwell Gate. Today there’s no gate, but St Andrew still guards the entrance to Petty Cury and Sidney Street, the two main shopping roads. The Church was declared redundant in 1984, but after ten years of speculation (which saw plans to turn it into shops or the Tourist Information Office) the congregation of Holy Sepulchre moved here.
Inside the church is a mural monument to Captain James Cook, the circumnavigator of the world, d. 14 Feb. 1497; his son Hugh, of Christ’s College, d. 1793; and to James Cook, commander R.N. d. 25 Jan. 1794; the deaths of his son Nathaniel, midshipman H.M.S. Thunderer," lost in a storm 16 Oct. 1780, and of three other children, who died in their infancy, are also recorded; his widow Elizabeth, who died at Clapham, 13 May, 1835, was also buried here.
St Andrew’s is a Victorian building - the medieval church was demolished in 1842 and rebuilt to a plan by Ambrose Poynter (who also built St Paul’s on Hills Road and Christchurch on Newmarket Road).
Finally we visited St Botolph’s Church, at the intersection of Trumpington Street and Silver Street.
The Church is dedicated to St Botolph, a seventh century abbot in East Anglia, who is the patron saint of travellers. The most famous place named after him is Boston in Lincolnshire – “Botolph’s Town” – a place which gave its name to Boston in Massachusetts.
The church was by the south gate of medieval Cambridge, through which travellers from London entered the town. It was also the first church reached by travellers from the west who crossed the Cam where Silver Street Bridge now stands.
Norman and Saxon churches stood on the site prior to the existing church, which was built in 1350.
The pulpit is over 300 years old; the lectern was made and given to the church in 1875 and the pews for the congregation in the nave were installed in the late 19th Century.
Queens’ College have been the patron of the living since the 15th Century. The college was founded through the initiative of Andrew Doket, a 15th Century Rector of St Botolph’s.
The Chancel was rebuilt in the 19th century by the Victorian architect Bodley. Bodlley also designed the lectern, which was given to the church in memory of the Cambridge builder Kett.
There is a memorial to Darwin by the vestry door. Darwin’s family were parishioners of St Botolph’s.