St Botolph's Church, Cambridge is a

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...

in the city of

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

, England. The church is a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

The church is dedicated to

Botolph Botolph of Thorney (also called Botolph, Botulph or Botulf; later known as Saint Botolph; died around 680) was an English abbot and saint. He is regarded as the patron saint of boundaries, and by extension, of trade and travel, as well as vario ...

, a seventh-century abbot in East Anglia, who is a patron saint of travellers. The church was built by the south gate of medieval Cambridge, through which travellers from the south and west entered the town. Church of Saint Botolph, Cambridge (Southwest View - 01)

Church of Saint Botolph, Cambridge (Southwest View - 01)

The present building mostly dates from the fourteenth century and is built of flint and rubble with

Barnack stone Barnack is a village and civil parish, now in the Peterborough unitary authority of the ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England and the historic county of Northamptonshire. Barnack is in the north-west of the unitary authority, south-east ...

dressing. The octagonal

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...

of 1637 has a splendid

Laudian Laudianism was an early seventeenth-century reform movement within the Church of England, promulgated by Archbishop William Laud and his supporters. It rejected the predestination upheld by the previously dominant Calvinism in favour of free will, ...

wooden cover. The tower was built in the fifteenth century. It is surmounted by stone figures representing the four evangelists (restored 1971) and has a sundial on the south-west buttress. The four bells were cast in 1460 and are still in use. The elaborate chancel was rebuilt in 1872 by the Victorian architect

George Frederick Bodley George Frederick Bodley (14 March 182721 October 1907) was an English Gothic Revival architect. He was a pupil of Sir George Gilbert Scott, and worked in partnership with Thomas Garner for much of his career. He was one of the founders of Watt ...

and worked on by local artists

Frederick Leach Frederick Richard Leach (1837–1904) was an English master decorator, mural and stained glass painter based in Cambridge. He worked with the architects George Frederick Bodley and George Gilbert Scott Junior, the designer William Morris and the ...

and G. Gray. It is a fine example of high Victorian decoration and was conserved and restored in 2008 with help from the

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

. Bodley also designed the lectern. The church has the only medieval

rood screen The rood screen (also choir screen, chancel screen, or jubé) is a common feature in late medieval church architecture. It is typically an ornate partition between the chancel and nave, of more or less open tracery constructed of wood, stone, or ...

remaining in a Cambridge parish church; its paintings date from the late 19th-century restoration. The South Chapel was refurbished in memory of those who died in the First World War. The war memorial window in the South Chapel was one of the earliest commissions of Rachel Tancock (later Rachel de Montmorency). The two-light window depicts St George and St Michael. The chapel also commemorates the First Eastern General Hospital, built at the outbreak of the First World War on what is now the

Cambridge University Library Cambridge University Library is the main research library of the University of Cambridge. It is the largest of the over 100 libraries within the university. The Library is a major scholarly resource for the members of the University of Cambri ...

site. There are memorials to

Thomas Playfere Thomas Playfere (also Playford) (1561? – 2 February 1609) was an English churchman and theologian, Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity at Cambridge from 1596. Life Born in London about 1561, he was son of William Playfere and Alice, daught ...

(1609,

Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity The Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity is the oldest professorship at the University of Cambridge. It was founded initially as a readership by Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of King Henry VII, in 1502. Since its re-endowment at the end of ...

James Essex James Essex (1722–1784) was an English builder and architect who mostly worked in Cambridge, where he was born. He designed portions of many colleges of the University of Cambridge, and carried out major restorations of the cathedrals at Ely and ...

(architect), members of the Darwin family, and Sir

Ernest Barker Sir Ernest Barker (23 September 1874 – 17 February 1960) was an English political scientist who served as Principal of King's College London from 1920 to 1927. Life and career Ernest Barker was born in Woodley, Cheshire, and educated at Ma ...

. On 26 April 1950, the church was designated a

. In the early hours of 4 February 2020 the church was broken into resulting in the destruction of an 1870 stained glass window by

Charles Kempe Charles Eamer Kempe (29 June 1837 – 29 April 1907) was a British Victorian era designer and manufacturer of stained glass. His studios produced over 4,000 windows and also designs for altars and altar frontals, furniture and furnishings, lich ...

, depicting Botolph and

Margaret of Antioch Margaret, known as Margaret of Antioch in the West, and as Saint Marina the Great Martyr ( grc-gre, Ἁγία Μαρίνα) in the East, is celebrated as a saint on 20 July in the Western Rite Orthodoxy, Roman Catholic Church and Anglicanism, o ...

. In the first week of the church's online fundraiser over £3,000 was raised to repair the window and secure the church against further incidents, alongside repairs to the church's roof which had been stripped of its lead by thieves several months prior.

Present day

The church is located at the intersection of

Trumpington Street Trumpington Street is a major historic street in central Cambridge, England. At the north end it continues as King's Parade where King's College is located. To the south it continues as Trumpington Road (the A1134), an arterial route out of ...

and

Silver Street ''Silver Street'' is a radio soap opera broadcast on the BBC Asian Network from 24 May 2004 to 26 March 2010. It was the first soap to be aimed at the British South Asian community, Broadcast history It was introduced in 2004 as part of the S ...

; the narrow Botolph Lane runs alongside the churchyard to the south and Corpus Christi College is to the north. The parish extends west, over the

River Cam The River Cam () is the main river flowing through Cambridge in eastern England. After leaving Cambridge, it flows north and east before joining the River Great Ouse to the south of Ely, at Pope's Corner. The total distance from Cambridge to ...

, into Newnham and includes several colleges.

Gallery

File:St Botolph's Church, Cambridge c1870.jpg, St Botolph's in ''circa'' 1870 File:Laudian Font - St Botolph's Church - geograph.org.uk - 1029653.jpg, The

font File:Tancock 4 (2).JPG, Stained glass window by Rachel Tancock File:Close-up of sundial - geograph.org.uk - 517582.jpg, Sundial on a tower buttress File:St Botolph's Parish Church, Cambridge - geograph.org.uk - 1335261.jpg, Interior, looking towards the chancel

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:St Botolph's Church, Cambridge

History of Cambridge