Relhan Collection : 162 Grantchester church. View from W after repairs in 1820

Relhan, Richard, 1782-1844

Relhan Collection

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>St Mary’s and St Andrew’s church has a nave that retains late C11 or early C12 fabric and architectural fragments including a window and interlace panels of Saxo-Norman work that were built into the S aisle wall (outside) by Arthur Blomfield, when that aisle was constructed in 1877. There is no N aisle. The chancel is in the decorative mid-C14 style with flowing tracery comparable to Ely, perhaps thanks to the new college of Corpus Christi which held the living. The tower was added 1388-1426, dated by Bishop Fordham of Ely’s shields above the door, as shown by Relhan and still preserved in the window that replaced this door. The W door, though essentially processional, was still much used, possibly because the N porch was used by the homeless. However in 1830 this was contested and the church door moved to the outside of the porch, enabling the ground floor of the tower later to be converted to a vestry, at which point the W door was replaced by a window, with a new vestry door inserted from the S. The blocked windows above the door have been restored. Relhan shows the church with an embattled top and short slated spire, as now. This looks as if it has survived unchanged but was in fact restored with much concrete 1899-1900. In 1874 the old S door with good mouldings was demolished, as well as some windows.The church was enlarged 1877–8, when the S wall was removed and an aisle added, and the flat nave roof was raised into a wagon roof. There was further restoration 1887–91, with 7 new windows. The clock, which famously (in Rupert Brooke’s poem) stands at 10 to 3, was added 1870 or 1877. Conservation work 1996-2006 was by Henry Freeland. </p><p>Bell 2103; Evelyn-White 1911; Saunders P pers comm; VCH 1978</p></p>