The Church of St Cyriac and St Julitta is a redundant

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

church in the village of

Swaffham Prior Swaffham Prior is a small village in East Cambridgeshire, England. Lying 5 miles west of Newmarket, and two miles south west of Burwell, the village is often paired with its neighbour Swaffham Bulbeck, and are collectively referred to as 'Th ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II*

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 ...

, and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. The church stands in an elevated position above the village street, the B1102 road, some northeast 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 ...

. It is less than from the adjoining Church of St Mary, and both churches share the same churchyard.

History

The church has a dual

dedication Dedication is the act of consecrating an altar, temple, church, or other sacred building. Feast of Dedication The Feast of Dedication, today Hanukkah, once also called "Feast of the Maccabees," is a Jewish festival observed for eight days fr ...

to Saints Cyriac and Julitta ( Quiricus and Julietta), Saint Julitta being the mother of Saint Cyriac. Both this church and the adjacent church of St Mary were established by the early 13th century. Initially separate

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

es, their

benefice A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...

s were united in 1667. In 1743 the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

and

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

of St Cyriac's were restored, but by 1783 the church was in a dilapidated state, and services were being held in St Mary's. By the 1790s the roof of St Cyriac's was collapsing, and it was overgrown with ivy. However, in 1779 the tower of St Mary's had been struck by lightning, and in 1802, when builders were working on the tower, part of it collapsed. It was then decided to demolish St Cyriac's church, other than the tower, and rebuild it. Work began in 1806 to designs by Charles Humfrey of Cambridge. The cost of the work was over £3,100 (equivalent to £ in ), and the church was re-

consecrated Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service. The word ''consecration'' literally means "association with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different grou ...

in 1809. Towards the end of the century, work was carried out to restore St Mary's. St Mary's was re-opened in 1903, and it then became the sole

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

. The fabric of St Cyriac's was left to decay, and by the 1960s its ceiling was collapsing. Its tower was restored in 1959–60, and in 1974 the Redundant Churches Fund, the forerunner of the Churches Conservation Trust, spent £10,000 (equivalent to £ in ) on repairing and restoring the rest of the church. Since then, it has been used occasionally for exhibitions and concerts. Since 2017, it has been available as a '

champing The Churches Conservation Trust is a registered charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk in England. The charity cares for over 350 churches of architectural, cultural and historic significance, which have been transferred in ...

' church, one of 27 churches in England and Scotland in which you can camp overnight.

Architecture

The tower is constructed in clunch and

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...

with

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

dressings. The rest of the church is in

gault The Gault Formation is a geological formation of stiff blue clay deposited in a calm, fairly deep-water marine environment during the Lower Cretaceous Period (Upper and Middle Albian). It is well exposed in the coastal cliffs at Copt Point in Fol ...

brick with stone dressings. The roof is

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

d. Its plan consists of a three-

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...

nave with north and south

aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parl ...

s, north and south

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building withi ...

s, a chancel, and a west tower. The tower is in three stages with

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (s ...

es. The lower two stages are square, and the top stage is octagonal. At the northeast angle is a staircase. The tower is set on a plinth with a frieze decorated in a chequerboard pattern in brick and stone. In the bottom stage of the tower is a west doorway, and above this is a three-light window. The top stage contains two-light bell openings on each face. The

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...

is decorated with

flushwork In architecture, flushwork is decorative masonry work which combines on the same flat plane flint and ashlar stone. If the stone projects from a flat flint wall then the term is proudwork, as the stone stands "proud" rather than being "flush" wi ...

. At the west end of the church is a gallery. There is a

ring Ring may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell :(hence) to initiate a telephone connection Arts, entertainment and media Film and ...

of six bells, all cast in 1791 by John Briant. Although St Mary's also has a fine Romanesque tower, only the tower of Ss. Cyriac & Julitta contains bells, and so they are still rung every Sunday for services at St Mary's. As of February 2019, the tenor bell has been deemed 'unringable'.

External links

The Churches Conservation Trust: St Cyriac and Julitta, Swaffham PriorSt Cyriac and Julitta - Champing FAQ'sChamping

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swaffham Prior, Church of St Cyriac and St Julitta Grade II* listed churches in Cambridgeshire Church of England church buildings in Cambridgeshire English Gothic architecture in Cambridgeshire Churches preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust