Church Of St Mary

Historical Development

A church stood on this site before the Norman Conquest, though no visible Anglo-Saxon fabric survives. The southwest and northeast corners of the south aisle date from the 12th century, indicating a substantial church by that time. The chancel and south nave arcade were rebuilt in the 13th century, and the north aisle and arcade were either built or rebuilt during this period. The west tower and south porch are late 14th century. Around 1500, the nave clerestory was added. Following the tower's collapse in 1609, the north arcade, north aisle, and part of the west tower were rebuilt. A vestry and organ chamber were added in 1869, and further restoration was carried out in 1876 to designs by Reginald Blomfield.

Materials and Construction

The church is constructed of stone rubble with Barnack stone dressings, except for the north aisle and west tower, which are 17th-century ashlar. The roofs are tiled and leaded.

Plan

The church comprises a nave with north and south aisles, a west tower, and a south porch. The chancel has a northeast vestry and organ chamber.

Exterior Description

West Tower

The massive late 14th-century west tower, though repaired on its north side in the 17th century, presents an impressive view down the High Street. Built in three stages with an embattled parapet and tall pinnacles, it is richly decorated. The buttresses feature elaborate gables and niches at each level, particularly ornate towards the west. A band of enriched quatrefoils runs between the second and third stages, with more on the parapet. The north side formerly had additional decoration, of which only fragments survive. The ogee-headed west door sits within an elaborate frame with statue niches featuring nodding ogee heads and quatrefoils in the spandrels. The west window follows 14th-century style, but its tracery was renewed in the 19th century. The collapse primarily affected the northeast corner, though some upper-level features—notably the two-light bell openings with uncusped lights—may also be 17th century. The parapet appears to have been rebuilt, as some ornament now faces inward.

Chancel

The chancel has a 19th-century triplet of lancets in the east wall. The buttresses are remains of the former side walls before the chancel was shortened. The north wall contains a 13th-century lancet with a label carried on small shafts. The chancel south wall features a fine 13th-century doorway with dogtooth ornament and jamb shafts, a 19th-century door with a pointed head, square surround and punched roundels in the spandrels, and two three-light late 15th-century windows. The 19th-century northeast organ chamber is arranged like a transept with its gable at right angles to the chancel, and has a Y-tracery window. The lean-to vestry has a reset 13th-century lancet similar to that in the chancel.

North Aisle and Transept

The slightly projecting north transept at the east end of the north aisle has a late 15th or early 16th-century window reset in the 17th century. The north aisle is ashlar-faced and has two early 17th-century windows in late Gothic style with foiled lights in four-centred heads; they retain their original stanchions and saddle bars. Between the windows is a blocked 17th-century door with a pointed head and worn headstops, possibly 13th-century reset. Above the door is an inscription panel noting the commencement of the aisle's rebuilding in 1608, and on the aisle parapet above this door is an inscription recording its completion in 1620.

South Aisle

At the northeast corner of the south aisle where it joins the nave stands a flat 12th-century buttress. Another 12th-century buttress exists at the southwest angle and a third against the southeast corner of the tower. A shaped stop on the east side of the northeast buttress is probably the remains of the 12th-century chancel corbel table. The south aisle east window is 15th century, heavily restored. The south-facing windows are 19th century in 15th-century style, and there is a blocked, possibly 15th-century window in the aisle west wall that was at one time converted to a door.

South Porch

The late 14th-century south porch has an embattled gable. The outer opening is of two slender orders with shafts and moulded capitals. The south door is also late 14th century with two orders of small mouldings separated by a band of foliate bosses.

Clerestory

The south clerestory is late 15th century. The north clerestory is 17th century, ashlar-faced, with windows similar to those in the north aisle, featuring shallow four-centred heads and three cusped lights under a moulded label.

Interior

Arcades

The spacious interior is plastered and painted throughout. The nave arcades are of five bays, with the east bay on each side being a narrower arch cut through the long east respond. The north nave arcade was rebuilt in the early 17th century following the tower's fall in 1607, reusing some 13th-century materials including moulded capitals and water-holding bases. The capitals bear inscriptions commemorating the rebuilding. From the west, the piers are alternately polygonal, round, and polygonal. The easternmost pier, inserted in the 19th century when the narrow east arch was built, is also polygonal. The southwest respond has a 17th-century moulded corbel, and the east respond has a 17th-century style moulded corbel, possibly reset.

The south arcade is 13th century, with a range of piers all having moulded capitals and water-holding bases. The westernmost is polygonal, followed by a round pier, then a pier with clustered shafts. The easternmost pier is also polygonal and apparently 17th century with an inscription, belonging with the narrow east bay, apparently also inserted in the 17th century. The northwest respond has a cluster of short shafts; at the east end the chamfers of the arches die into the wall. The south arcade has a pronounced southward lean.

Other Interior Features

The tower arch, inserted in the 19th century, has corbelled pilaster responds. The late 13th-century chancel arch is of two orders, the outer continuous, the inner on polygonal corbels of probably early 17th-century date. The 13th-century lancet in the chancel north wall has shafted splays; similar shafts are reset in the splays of the 15th-century windows on the south side. The 19th-century east lancets have a richly moulded label on detached shafts; the remains of the large, possibly 17th-century window they replaced are visible at the top.

Principal Fixtures

The font is 13th century with an octagonal bowl of shelly marble on eight detached shafts around a central stem. The shafts have moulded capitals and water-holding bases, probably contemporary with the arcades. A 15th-century piscina survives in the south aisle. A fragment of late 15th or early 16th-century screenwork hangs in the tower. Otherwise, the church was almost entirely refurnished in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The late 19th-century pulpit is in 13th-century style with cusped arcading on clustered shafts. The 1924 chancel altar by Ninian Comper has riddel posts with carved angels. The altar rails are 20th century with splat balusters. The late 19th-century reredos was removed from the chancel in 1924 and re-erected under the tower as a war memorial. Made of stone and alabaster, it has gilded four-centred ogee arcading over angels and the list of the dead. Simple open nave benches and choir stalls feature some openwork. The church contains some good 19th and 20th-century glass.

Roofs

The nave roof is of hammerbeam construction with curved braces, square rafters, and simple pendant drops on the ends of the hammers, dating to the early 17th century. It is strengthened with iron tie rods. The 17th-century north aisle roof was rebuilt in 1876 and has embattled tie beams with curved braces and short king posts. The chancel roof was also rebuilt in 1876, replacing a roof of much lower pitch, and is now similar in design to that in the nave. The south aisle roof is low-pitched with short curved braces to the principal rafters, all apparently 19th century. Four wall posts with carved figures of around 1500, possibly from the former chancel roof, hang above the chancel arch. The bell chamber of the tower has a heavy tie beam with braces, probably early 17th century.

Inscriptions and Monuments

An extensive range of 17th-century inscriptions on the north aisle, north arcade, and east pier of the south arcade commemorate the 17th-century rebuilding. Among those mentioned is Robert Cromwell, father of Oliver. Two large 18th-century benefaction boards with cherub heads above the inscriptions stand at the west end of the south aisle.

Several wall tablets exist, the best collected under the west tower as part of the 1876 restoration. The tablet to the Carcassonnett family of 1749, with pilasters and an open pediment signed by Scheemakers, is particularly notable.

Subsidiary Features

Good 18th and 19th-century table tombs and other monuments stand in the churchyard.

Historical Context

St Mary's is perhaps the most ancient of Huntingdon's once numerous churches. At the time of Domesday Book in 1086, it was clearly already a large and valuable church that was the subject of a dispute over its ownership. The surviving 12th-century buttresses on the south side suggest the nave had reached its full extent by the early 12th century, and that the south aisle was apparently also 12th-century in origin. The vestigial north transept may suggest the early church was cruciform.

The south nave arcade was rebuilt and the north arcade and aisle built or rebuilt in the 13th century. The chancel was also rebuilt in the 13th century and was originally perhaps as much as 18 feet longer than it is now. The west tower was built in its present form in the late 14th century, and the south porch was also added in the 14th century. This may have resulted from the consolidation of parishes in Huntingdon after the Black Death, which is said to have hit the town hard.

In 1428 the church was said to be impoverished and destroyed by fire, probably providing a date for the rebuilding of the clerestory and the insertion of the 15th-century windows. In 1607 the tower, and perhaps its then spire, collapsed at the northeast corner. Its fall demolished the north aisle and clerestory, which were subsequently rebuilt. Work of this date also included the nave roof, the chancel arch, and the east bay of the south arcade.

The chancel was shortened at an unknown date. A 19th-century photograph shows it to have had a large window with a pointed head and simple Y tracery, possibly suggesting a late 18th-century date for the work, although an early 17th-century date is equally likely. It was almost certainly entirely refurnished in the 17th century. By the 18th century it had at least one gallery at the west. It was re-pewed with uniform box pews in 1835, and the triple-decker pulpit was removed in 1862 and replaced by a small wooden pulpit, which itself was replaced by the present pulpit in the later 19th century.

The northeast vestry and organ chamber were added in 1869, and the present east window was installed in 1876 as part of the restoration by Blomfield, which also included the replacement of some of the roofs. The restorer, Reginald Blomfield, was a well-known and well-respected church architect. Further restoration took place in the 20th century.