Relhan Collection : 121 Cherry Hinton church. SE view

Relhan, Richard, 1782-1844

Relhan Collection

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>1820</p><p>St Andrew’s is a magnificent church, basically of the mid-C13 but much repaired. ‘<i>Although heavily restored in the C19, it is one of the finest and most complete Early English parish churches in the county</i>’ (VCH), with the nave, aisles, and chancel all built c.1215-25. Unfortunately too much soft clunch was used as a building material, requiring frequent repairs and rebuilding. The aisle had new windows, roof and parapets added in C14, and in the C16 (exceptional work at this date) the N vestry and S porch were added, windows on E side replaced, the chancel reroofed, the tower refaced and a W window inserted. A clerestory was added but fell down 1792.The chancel was restored and a classical reredos added in the early C18th by William Watson (<b>122b</b> and <b>125</b>), but in 1774 Cole still thought the chancel ‘<i>squalid and dirty'</i>. This was basically the church Relhan recorded. In 1883 Bell is critical of heavy-handed restoration undertaken 1879, when the nave and aisles, mostly of clunch, were pulled down and rebuilt in yellow Ketton stone by JO Scott. Apparently the Vicar swore the interior was rebuilt using original stone but it was ‘<i>so scraped and shaved that the original contours of the old mouldings have been quite destroyed</i>’ (Bell). However, the new work was designed by G Gilbert Scott, so the medieval originals were faithfully followed if not preserved.</p><p>Bell 2012; Palmer 1932; VCH 2002; RCHME 1959</p></p>