Relhan Collection : 297 Swaffham Prior. The churches of St Cyriac & St Julitta and St Mary

Relhan, Richard, 1782-1844

Relhan Collection

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>1801</p><p>The churches of St Mary and of St Cyriac and St Julitta are two once-grand medieval churches that, unusually but not uniquely, stand in the same churchyard and are still prominent features in the village. They were both first built in C12 but always acted independently, with separate churchwardens, vicars (each with his own small vicarage) and registers until 1667 (even then it was determined that both churches should continue, and this was the case until the1750s), and broadly suffered similar short spells of munificence followed by neglect. St Cyriac’s was built by Scalers manor and passed to Ely, and St Mary’s belonged to the Richmond estate and then Anglesey Abbey. By C13 St Mary’s had an aisleless nave and a chancel. Its exceptional octagonal tower is also Norman, but completed in C13 with unusual polygonal stages and a spire. In the C15 aisles, clerestory and W porch were built and the nave altered, but in succeeding centuries there was much neglect and Relhan was only just in time to record the spire that surmounted the tower from C13 before it was demolished 1802-3. St Cyriac’s at this time was in terrible condition, with only the chancel still roofed and all services held in St Mary's. Fortunately Relhan was able to record the S aisle, a C12 doorway and the tower (dated 1493) before all but the tower were demolished in 1805. In fact both churches were scheduled for demolition, apart from the tower of St Cyriac’s, but Charles Humfrey of Cambridge was called in, began work 1806 and a grey brick church of St Cyriac’s was consecrated 1809. St Mary’s was then deserted and would have been totally demolished had not Sarah Allix, one of the landowning local Allix family, bought the ruins for a railed-off family burial place. St Cyriac's brick Georgian church was maintained and used in C19 but its style was criticised (Lysons described it as ‘<i>an ugly structure’</i> and it was commonly known as Carpenter’s Gothic), and in the 1870s CP Allix of Swaffham Prior House promoted (and organised and mostly funded) restoration of St Mary’s as the parish church, with Arthur Blomfield as architect. The chancel was repaired, a vestry added, and the nave and S aisle were restored or rebuilt, with work completed 1903 in medieval style. Monuments removed to St Cyriac's after 1806 were returned to St Mary’s, now the sole church. In C20 St Cyriac’s decayed again and by 1960s was near to collapse, but the tower was restored 1959-60, the top of the tower was reinstated in a modern design in 1965 by Cecil Bourne, and the Redundant Churches Fund (now Churches Conservation Trust) repaired the C19 building in 1974, again with Cecil Bourne. Today we have one late C19 church, St Mary’s, in Gothic style but still with its impressive octagonal medieval tower, and one early C19 church, maintained but not in use, with a handsome medieval tower of late C15. Relhan’s view is one snapshot of these 2 churches at a low ebb, a useful guide to their authentic medieval traces. A similar view is shown in <i>Beauties of England and Wales 1801-1815, </i>and this too may have been used by Relhan<i>.</i></p><p>Bradley and Pevsner 2014; Britton and Brayley 1801-1815; Lysons 1808; RCHME 1972; VCH 1982</p></p>