Roman Catholic Church Of St Etheldreda And Attached Walls And Piers

The Roman Catholic Church of St Etheldreda, together with associated walls and piers, is a chapel and crypt built around 1300 as part of the town house of the Bishops of Ely. It was restored in 1874 by George Gilbert Scott Jnr, again in 1935 by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, repaired between 1944 and 1952 following war damage, and refitted in the 1960s. The building is constructed of ragstone with limestone dressings.

The plan is rectangular, with a plain crypt beneath the chapel. The exterior, mainly visible on the east elevation, shows two narrow, late Geometrical style windows to the crypt, and above them a large, elaborately traceried, five-light late Geometrical window (heavily restored after war damage), flanked by tall, narrow, blind gabled arcades with cusped detail and a quatrefoil window above. A similar window is on the west side. The entrance is on the south elevation, featuring a pointed archway with three orders of mouldings.

Internally, the north and south elevations have two-light windows with pointed trefoil tracery, containing glass depicting scenes from the Old and New Testaments by Charles Blakeman (1952-8). The west window, a depiction of English martyrs also by Blakeman (1964), and the east window, showing Christ in Majesty by Joseph Nuttgens (1952), are also noteworthy. Between the windows, and to the sides of the east and west windows, are tall, narrow, blind, cusped arcades with crocketed gables, supporting statues of martyrs (executed by May Blakeman, 1962-4) on enriched corbels. The organ screen is the work of Francis Bentley. The crypt features 19th-century columns and a floor of London paving stone, with glass by Charles Blakeman from the 1960s.

Associated with the church are attached stone boundary walls and gabled stone gate piers. Historically, the chapel had octagonal turrets at the four corners. During the Elizabethan period, the house and chapel were temporarily confiscated but subsequently reinstated and remained in the possession of the see of Ely until 1722, when the house was demolished and the chapel became a proprietary chapel. After passing through several owners, it was acquired by the Rosminian Fathers in 1874.