The Church of St Peter is a redundant

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

(

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

) church in

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 ...

, in the Parish of the Ascension of the

Diocese of Ely The Diocese of Ely is a Church of England diocese in the Province of Canterbury. It is headed by the Bishop of Ely, who sits at Ely Cathedral in Ely, Cambridgeshire, Ely. There is one suffragan bishop, suffragan (subordinate) bishop, the Bisho ...

, located on Castle Street between Honey Hill and

Kettle's Yard Kettle's Yard is an art gallery and house in Cambridge, England. The director of the art gallery is Andrew Nairne. Both the house and gallery reopened in February 2018 after an expansion of the facilities. History and overview Kettle's Yar ...

. The church is now in the care of the

Churches Conservation Trust 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 ...

. The church is usually open and sometimes hosts art exhibitions in cooperation with the Kettle's Yard gallery.

History

The church has been known as "St Peter by the

Castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

" (''ad castrum'') or "Beyond the Bridge" to distinguish it from St Peter-without-Trumpington Gate (now Little St Mary's). The present structure is the remnant of one that went back to the 12th century, with a nave, chancel, south aisle, and west tower and spire. Former county archaeologist Alison Taylor suggests that, due to its location, across the Roman road from St Giles' Church, it may have its origins in the Anglo-Saxon period but no evidence of the church prior to the Norman period has currently been discovered. Under the Tudor monarchy, the

advowson Advowson () or patronage is the right in English law of a patron (avowee) to present to the diocesan bishop (or in some cases the ordinary if not the same person) a nominee for appointment to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice or church living, a ...

came to the Crown, and Elizabeth I granted it to the See of Ely. In 1650 the town commissioners found that St Peter's had neither parsonage nor vicarage, and recommended that the parish should be united with St Giles'. It has been annexed to the vicarage of St Giles for several hundred years. St Peter's is now a single-cell church with a west tower and an octagonal 14th-century spire with dormers. Construction is of stone rubble with pebble for the tower and ashlar for the spire. The church was rebuilt on a reduced scale in 1781, although there are several surviving medieval details. It has a 13th-century south doorway, and a 12th-century font, decorated with

mermen Mermen may refer to: * The Mermen, a music group *Merman A merman (: mermen; also merlad or merboy in youth), the male counterpart of the mythical female mermaid, is a legendary creature which is human from the waist up and fish-like from the w ...

at the angles. By the beginning of the 20th Century the building was almost derelict again. The

weathervane A wind vane, weather vane, or weathercock is an list of weather instruments, instrument used for showing the wind direction, direction of the wind. It is typically used as an architectural ornament to the highest point of a building. The word ' ...

has the initials AP; these are said to be those of Andrew Perne, a self-serving sixteenth-century vice-chancellor of Cambridge University and dean of Ely. The initials were said to denote 'A

Papist The words Popery (adjective Popish) and Papism (adjective Papist, also used to refer to an individual) are mainly historical pejorative words in the English language for Roman Catholicism, once frequently used by Protestants and Eastern Orthodox ...

', 'A

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

', or 'A

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...

', depending on which way the wind blew.

Diarmaid MacCulloch Diarmaid Ninian John MacCulloch (; born 31 October 1951) is an English academic and historian, specialising in ecclesiastical history and the history of Christianity. Since 1995, he has been a fellow of St Cross College, Oxford; he was former ...

, ''Reformation: Europe's House Divided'', p.209. The church was gradually restored with concreted stone in the 1930s.

Gallery

cmglee_Cambridge_St_Peters_inside3.jpg, Interior from under the tower St Peter's Church, Castle Street - geograph.org.uk - 492178.jpg, South door Baptismal font at St Peter's Church, Cambridge 002.jpg, 12th-century baptismal font Stained glass window at St Peter's Church, Cambridge 002.jpg, Stained glass Keys of Saint Peter at St Peter's Church, Cambridge.jpg, Saint Peter's keys Jim Ede memorial stone at St Peter's church, Cambridge.jpg, Memorial stone to Jim Ede "who created

and helped to preserve this church"

References

External links

St Peter's Church
at the Churches Conservation Trust website

Cambridgeshire Churches Site
CCT information for teachersChurch at Castle parish'The city of Cambridge: Churches', ''A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely:'' Volume 3: The City and University of Cambridge (1959)
{{coord , 52, 12, 39.8, N, 0, 6, 50, E, type:landmark_region:GB-CAM, display=title

Peter Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a su ...

Cambridge, St Peter's Church

Grade II* listed buildings in Cambridge

History

Gallery

See also

References

External links