Church Of St Mary And St Michael

This is a large and handsome church, predominantly of the early 14th century, though with important 12th and 13th-century fabric. There was a substantial church here by the late 12th or early 13th century, evidenced by the base of the tower and parts of both aisles. The chancel, with a now-demolished north-east sacristy, was rebuilt in the late 13th century. Around 1330, most of the church was comprehensively rebuilt, including the nave, clerestory, aisles, chapels, porches and the upper part of the tower. A north-west vestry was apparently added in the 16th century. The church underwent repeated restorations in the 19th century, most notably in 1858 and 1876-7 by the distinguished architect William Butterfield, who renewed the windows and reclad the exterior in new Bath stone. The vestry was rebuilt on old foundations in 1912.

The church is built of limestone, mainly Barnack in the lower parts, with some Ketton and Ancaster stone. The nave, aisles and tower were largely refaced externally in Bath stone during the 19th century. The chancel roof is tiled; all other roofs are lead-covered.

The plan consists of a chancel; a nave with five-bay north and south aisles, each having further two-bay outer aisle chapels with north and south porches; and a west tower.

Exterior

The church presents a large and impressive 14th-century appearance, though the exterior is very smooth as a result of 19th-century renewal. The nave is significantly larger than the chancel, which has no projections in contrast to the nave with its aisles and chapels.

The chancel is late 13th century but was partially remodelled in the early 14th century when it received an exceptionally fine five-light east window with intersecting cusped tracery. In the apex of the chancel gable is a quatrefoil window set in a richly moulded roundel, similar to those in the south clerestory of the nave. The north chancel wall has, towards the west, two late 13th-century windows with trefoiled lights and trefoils in the heads. Further east in this wall is archaeological evidence—roof corbels, a piscina and a blocked doorway—for a former sacristy or chapel of the 13th century. The south chancel wall has three late 13th-century windows, including two similar to those on the north, and a further 14th-century low-side window. A 13th-century door, apparently displaced by the low-side window, was reset further east beneath a window in the 14th century, and there is also a restored recess, possibly a tomb recess, below the central window.

The nave has quatrefoil clerestory windows on the south side and trefoiled ogee-headed lights on the north side. The north and south aisles and outer aisle chapels are buttressed, with angle buttresses at the north-east and south-east corners, and two- and three-light Decorated windows in a range of intersecting and reticulated patterns, all renewed in the 19th century. The porches are tucked into the western angles between the chapels and aisles, and have lean-to roofs and two-centred openings with hood moulds over restored 14th-century doorways. The north porch also has a 14th-century door into the north chapel.

The lowest part of the west tower is 13th century, but it was completed or rebuilt above this level in the 14th century at the same time as the rest of the church was rebuilt. It has a south-west stair turret and an embattled parapet with gargoyles. The west door has two moulded orders and a hood mould with head stops. There is a large three-light west window, and trefoiled statue niches in the north and south walls. Above these are trefoiled lancets like those in the north nave clerestory, and the bell stage has two-light Y-tracery openings.

Interior

The interior is lofty, with rich 14th-century arcades, small clerestory windows, and a high 19th-century roof. The view towards the east is dominated by the enormous early 14th-century east window with excellent Decorated tracery.

The chancel east window has an elaborate rere-arch with shafts on the splays. A 13th-century door in the chancel north wall formerly led to the north sacristy. The chancel arch is of two moulded orders that die into the walls, and the east wall of the nave may have been rebuilt slightly further east in the 14th century as the north-east part of the chancel arch partly covers the head stop on the westernmost window in the chancel north wall. The chancel has a canted, plastered ceiling that was redone in the early 19th century but retains 15th-century ribs and bosses.

The tall 14th-century nave arcades are of five bays with complex orders of many fine mouldings on equally complex piers with numerous tiny attached shafts. There are hood moulds with headstops towards the nave on either side. The west responds of both arcades are 13th century, and that on the south may be slightly earlier as it has a late 12th-century waterholding base. The aisle windows have nook shafts, and the string course at sill level rises around the doorways. At the west end of the north aisle is a 16th-century door to the vestry below a blocked 14th-century window opening. There is also a blocked window opening at the west end of the south aisle, partly cut by the present south wall, suggesting that the late 12th or 13th-century aisle was rebuilt narrower in the 14th century.

The two-bay arcades to the chapels are similar to, but slightly less complex than, the nave arcades. The east bay of the north chapel arcade is partially blocked by the Trumpington tomb. The tower arch has three continuously moulded orders to the east and two to the west. The lower part of the tower arch stands on 13th-century responds similar to the west respond of the north arcade, but above this it is entirely 14th century. The tower arch is partly filled by a west organ gallery. The door to the tower stair is 14th century and has wrought iron strapwork hinges.

Fittings

The church was refurnished in the 19th century, but some medieval fittings survive, including a late 13th-century double piscina in the chancel, and another on the exterior north wall of the chancel to serve the former sacristy. There are 14th-century piscinas in the north and south chapels. The lower part of the 15th-century rood screen stands in the chancel arch and has panels with flowing blind tracery. It was recoloured in the 19th century.

There is also a late 15th-century octagonal font with quatrefoil panels on the bowl, tracery panels on the stem, and carved heads. It may have been recut in the 19th century.

The pulpit was formerly in Emmanuel College, Cambridge and was given to the church in 1677 by Thomas Allen. The panelled octagonal top part is early 17th century, and it was reset on a new base in the late 19th century. The east wall of the chancel is lined in alabaster and tiles to a design by Butterfield, with lozenges on the north and south and a more elaborate geometric scheme on the east. The probably mid-19th-century nave benches, some of which have doors, have simple tracery on the ends. The simple choir stalls are early 20th century.

There is also some good reset medieval glass, including a 13th-century heraldic panel, probably for Edmund Crouchback, Earl of Lancaster (1245-96), a number of 14th-century panels including figures and heraldry, and a little 15th-century glass. There is also some 19th-century glass, including two windows by Gibbs.

Monuments

There are numerous fine monuments in the church, the most important of which is the Trumpington tomb of around 1330, set into the north arch of the north chapel arcade. A table tomb, it has a Purbeck marble slab and brass under an elaborate ogee arch. The brass, one of the finest in the country, depicts a man in chain mail with his helm beneath his head and his feet on a dog, and was long said to have been made around 1300 for the crusader Roger de Trumpington, who died in 1289. More recently, however, it has been argued that it was made around 1326 for a later member of the same family, and so is contemporary with the tomb. The chest, which has ogee arched panelling, has two post-medieval memorial tablets inserted into it, one for Thomas Pytcher, who died in 1577, the other for William Pytcher, who died in 1614. There are also a number of excellent wall tablets of the late 17th to the 19th centuries, a hatchment of around 1800, and several 13th or 14th-century coffin lids. There are two 17th-century benefaction tables, one of 1681 for Thomas Allen, the other of 1679 for William Austin, and the base of the late 15th-century village cross now stands inside the church.

There is some medieval graffiti in the tower, and an unusual scratched drawing of Ely Cathedral on the tower leads by Dobson Clarke, 1731.

Setting

Three 14th-century windows, removed when copies were installed in the 19th century, survive in the churchyard but are overgrown. The 17th or 18th-century churchyard south wall is separately listed at Grade II.

Historical Context

Trumpington is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, and while the church itself is not mentioned, a substantial estate in Trumpington then belonged to the Abbey of Ely. By the 13th century Trumpington was a wealthy rectory often held by absentee rectors, including the royal minister Peter des Rivaux, who died in 1258, Alan of Rokeland, an official to the Bishop of Ely, and also by Nicholas of Hegham, during the period in the 1280s when he was Dean of Lincoln. Their patronage may explain the richness of the late 13th-century work in the chancel. The Trumpington family commemorated by the 14th-century tomb in the north chapel was one of several families who held substantial manors in the parish, and it is likely that they were significant patrons of the contemporary rebuilding of the church. The chancel glass was apparently destroyed during the reign of Edward IV, and further destruction was ordered by William Dowsing in 1643, although the churchwardens refused to level the chancel steps at that time. Some work was carried out in the 18th century, including repewing and reflooring, but little of this now remains. There was some work in the early 19th century, including repair of the roofs, and the church was extensively repaired and refurnished in the mid to late 19th century by the well-known church architect William Butterfield. There were two phases of work by him: the first around 1849-54 included the restoration of the chancel and stripping off plaster, exposing external clunch ashlar facing in poor condition. This was replaced in Bath stone in 1876. There was further work in the early 20th century, including rebuilding the vestry.