Church Of St Mary The Less

The Church of St Mary the Less

This church has pre-Conquest origins, though only a reset fragment of interlace ornament survives from that period. Part of the west tower dates from the 12th century. The church was almost entirely rebuilt between 1340 and 1352 to serve as the chapel for Peterhouse college, connected to the college by a gallery stair. There was apparently an intention to construct a western transverse ante-chapel in the manner of Merton College, Oxford, but this was never built. The westernmost bay adjoining the tower was completed or rebuilt in the 15th century.

Other 15th-century work included new tracery in the side windows, at least on the north side, and possibly reroofing the entire building. A scar of a low-pitched roof is visible at the west end, though the roof was also redone in the 17th century. In 1443 a chantry chapel was added on the north side for Thomas Lane, Master of Peterhouse. The south porch was added in the mid-15th century by John Leedes, who died in 1455 and was bursar of Peterhouse. Around 1487 the vestry was rebuilt and partially converted to a chantry chapel for John Warkworth. In the early 16th century a chantry was added on the south side for Henry Horneby, another Master of Peterhouse.

The church was refitted in 1741. The tower, still standing in the mid-18th century, fell or was demolished before the mid-19th century. The church was restored in 1856–7 by Gilbert Scott, and again in 1876 and 1891. The 1876 work probably included rebuilding the roof in steeply pitched form. The parish room and lower part of a new tower were built in 1892, and the south chapel was built in 1931 to designs by T H Lyon. There were further repairs in the 20th century.

The building is constructed of rubble, mostly ashlar-faced inside and out, with some repairs in brick. It has Barnack stone dressings and Collyweston stone slate and lead roofs. The plan comprises an undivided nave and chancel with a northwest tower incorporated into the western vestry, south porch, south chapel, two-storey south vestry with an ossuary below it, and gallery stairs to adjacent Peterhouse College. A parish room is attached to the west.

The building is undivided externally. Its height is emphasised by large, tall windows, a steeply pitched roof and offset buttresses reaching the full height of the walls. It is largely mid-14th century in appearance, though this is partly the result of 19th-century restoration that altered the late medieval or post-medieval roof pitch and the 15th-century tracery on the north side. The very large east window is 14th century and has six lights with excellent flowing tracery. It is surrounded by three 15th-century statue niches, those on the sides with vaulted canopies, that below with a projecting pedestal on an attached shaft. The east end was refaced in 1963.

There are four 14th-century windows in the north wall, all of four cinquefoiled lights, restored in the 19th century, which almost fill the bays between the buttresses. A similar window in the fourth bay is blocked. The westernmost window on the north is 15th century but with tracery restored in a 14th-century style.

The windows in the south wall are similar to those on the north but more irregular in their arrangement. The east end of the south side is largely hidden behind the south chapel, the stair to Peterhouse and the southeast vestry. The westernmost window on the south is 15th century, and the west wall has a three-light 15th-century window with vertical tracery. The south vestry is 14th century in origin but was rebuilt in the late 15th century and has two 15th-century east windows and one in the south wall. There are two small openings in the east wall to let light into the ossuary below the vestry, an unusual fixture relating to medieval burial practice. A fragment of Anglo-Saxon interlace ornament is built into the south wall of the parish room. The scars of the older tower and the former, lower-pitched roof are visible in the west gable of the nave.

The interior is lofty and light, with very large windows. There is no internal division, although there was formerly a screen between the third and fourth bays. The windows have shafted splays and moulded rerearches, the 15th-century windows at the west end with taller bases on the shafts than the 14th-century windows. The east window is flanked by ogee-headed niches, largely rebuilt but incorporating some earlier fragments. The first window on the south has blind tracery that is carried down to form a four-bay piscina and sedilia. There is a blocked door and 15th-century tomb recess in the north wall for Lane chapel, and the former Horneby chapel, now the ante-chamber to the south chapel, has an early 16th-century door and contemporary arch for a tomb recess with an elaborate ogee frame. The south chapel has a barrel-vaulted roof and a statue niche opposite the door. The ossuary below the vestry has a 14th-century brick vault with clunch ribs and a central, octagonal pier. The 12th-century tower arch is of two plain round-headed orders and has quirked and chamfered imposts. There is a square-headed door above the tower arch. To the northeast is a half arch that awkwardly joins the tower to the 15th-century north wall.

The four-bay piscina and sedilia composition formed by carrying down the mullions of the first window on the south side is 14th century. The individual bays have miniature vaults. There is a simpler 14th-century piscina in the south vestry. The 14th-century font is octagonal and has shields painted in the 17th century with various arms. The stem has blind tracery panels and shafts at each angle. The richly carved cover is dated 1632. There are Hanoverian Royal arms, probably part of the 1741 refitting. The stem of the pulpit of 1741 is the sole survivor of a complete 18th-century refurnishing of the church. The hexagonal pulpit, with a matching hexagonal sounding board and enriched panels in each face, one with an IHS monogram, was rebuilt in 1900. The 19th-century nave benches have square ends with blind tracery panels. The high altar with riddel posts is 1913 by Ninian Comper. What is apparently the former 19th-century reredos with rich carving, including figures of saints, is hung on the west wall of the church. There is some good 19th-century glass, including the west window of 1886 by Kempe.

Monuments include a 13th- or 14th-century coffin lid with indents for a later brass, and some good 18th- and 19th-century wall tablets, including one for Godfrey Washington, vicar, who died in 1729, a relative of President George Washington. There are also two brasses, one for John Holbrook, who died in 1436, Master of Peterhouse, the other of around 1500, also for an academic. Two small fragments of Anglo-Saxon interlace carving are reset on the outside of the parish room.

The church originates from before the Conquest and was apparently founded and served by a small clerical dynasty, passing from father to son. It was originally dedicated to St Peter and was called St Peter outside Trumpington Gates to distinguish it from the other St Peter's by the castle. Perhaps in response to growing pressure on parish clergy to be celibate, the last in this dynasty, Henry, gave it to the Hospital of John the Evangelist around 1197–1207. Its revenues were appropriated to the hospital, but it remained a parish church. In 1286 it was transferred to the new foundation of Peterhouse and was used as the college chapel until 1632, although it retained parochial functions also. By 1340 the church was said to be 'old and ruinous' and the scholars were not using it. By 1352, however, the new church was sufficiently complete to be consecrated, when it was rededicated to St Mary, distinguished from the other St Mary's as St Mary the Less. Peterhouse was founded by a bishop of Ely, and architecturally, St Mary the Less appears to have been influenced by the Lady Chapel at Ely Cathedral and the chapel of St Etheldreda's at the bishop of Ely's London residence. The church always retained its parochial functions, and in 1632, when a chapel was built within Peterhouse, it reverted to purely parochial use. It was refitted in the Georgian style with panelling, box pews, a choir gallery and a central pulpit in 1741, but all of this except the pulpit was removed when the church was restored in a Gothic style in 1856–7 by Sir George Gilbert Scott, one of the most important church restorers of the mid-19th century. Other changes, such as removing the Jacobean roof and giving it a steeper pitch, were also intended to give the building a more Gothic appearance. The architect of the south chapel, Thomas Lyon, was also the architect of the chapel of Sidney Sussex College.