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 ...

in the city of

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, England. The church is a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History

The church is dedicated to

Botolph Botolph of Thorney (; also called Botolph, Botulph or Botulf; later known as Saint Botolph; died ) 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 various aspec ...

, a seventh-century abbot in East Anglia, who is a patron saint of travellers. The church was built by the long-demolished south gate of medieval Cambridge, through which travellers from the south and west entered the town. The present building mostly dates from the fourteenth century and is built of flint and rubble with Barnack stone dressing. The octagonal

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...

of 1637 has a splendid

Laudian Laudianism, also called Old High Churchmanship, or Orthodox Anglicanism as they styled themselves when debating the Tractarians, was an early seventeenth-century reform movement within the Church of England that tried to avoid the extremes of Rom ...

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 with C. E. Kempe. He was in partnership with Thomas Garner for much of his career and was ...

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, o ...

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 over 100 libraries Libraries of the University of Cambridge, within the university. The library is a major scholarly resource for me ...

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, daugh ...

(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 in divinity by Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of King Henry VII, in 1502. Since its re-endowment ...

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 an ...

(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, lychg ...

, depicting Botolph and

Margaret of Antioch Margaret, known as Margaret of Antioch in the West, and as Saint Marina the Great Martyr () in the East, is celebrated as a saint on 20 July in Western Christianity, on 30th of July (Julian calendar) by the Eastern Orthodox Church, and on Epip ...

. 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 ...

and Silver Street; 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, Cambridgeshire, Ely, at Pope's Corner. The total distanc ...

, 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