The Round Church
From Holy Trinity we pass down Sidney Street and into Bridge Street. Just opposite St John’s Chapel is the church of the Holy Sepulchre, generally known as the Round Church. This is one of the four churches of the Templars which remain in England, and is the earliest. The Temple Church in London was built several years later; St Sepulchre’s at Northampton is later again; and the round church at Little Maplestead in Essex belongs to quite the last years of the Order. The round portion of the Cambridge church belongs to the earliest Norman period, and was begun in the reign of William Rufus—that is, before 1100. It consists of eight divisions. The round-headed arches of the ground-floor rest upon massive round piers; dwarf piers on the same principle support the arches of the triforium, which include a double arch separated by a slender central pillar and springing from pilasters attached to the main piers. The clerestory above is lighted by eight round-headed openings, splayed inwardly. The ribs of the conical roof continue into the clerestory and triforium and finish in the spandrils of the triforium arches with grotesque corbels. Although all this is on a miniature scale, the effect is very grand and solemn. The good taste of the last century blocked up the triforium and filled the ground-floor with pews. The exterior had been adorned much earlier with an upper storey. This, to be in harmony with the late Perpendicular chancel, was crowned by an ugly battlement. In 1841, the Cambridge Camden Society took the church in hand. Their architect was Salvin, who restored it very well, taking down the upper storey, adding a conical slate roof in agreement with tradition, and opening out the Norman doorway. Unfortunately, the Society’s taste in stained glass was not very advanced, and the gaudy east window by Willement is not at all appropriate. Wailes’ glass in the round part is much better, but is not all that could be desired. The Society’s stone altar was the subject of a cause celèbre, and was pronounced illegal by Sir Herbert Jenner Fust in 1845. This unhappy incident was the result of the dissolution of a society which had done literally everything for the cause of Cambridge archæology, and was no small factor in the great Church revival of the forties. St Sepulchre’s is one of those rare livings which are in the gift of the parishioners; and the burgesses of the parish are very tenacious of their privilege.
Lower down, on the same side of Bridge Street, a very ignominious spire invites us to St Clement’s, a church in the gift of Jesus College. This spire was built from a bequest of Cole, the well-known antiquary, early in the century, and above the west door is inscribed the punning motto, “Deum Cole.” The body of the church is Early English. St Clement’s is the last church on the east side of the river. St Giles’, just beyond Magdalene, is a large modern church with an unfinished west end, but its history is not uninteresting. There is no doubt that the priory church of St Giles stood on this site, under the shadow of the castle. A Norman arch from the old church has been incorporated in the south aisle of the present building; and, across the street, the interesting little church of St Peter, whose detail is partially Norman, doubtless served as an extra chapel. However, as the importance of the house increased, it removed to the suburb of Barnwell. We know that the monastery was founded by Hugolina Picot and her husband, somewhere about 1090. The Barnwell removal took place in 1122, under the auspices of Pain Peverel, standard-bearer to Robert of Normandy. In Barnwell, the squalid suburb of Cambridge which lies between the Newmarket Road and Parker’s Piece, no remains of the actual priory exist. It stood somewhere near the ugly modern church, which, although it is the parish church of St Andrew the Less, is called Christ Church. The little Early English building further down the Newmarket Road was, we may presume, a parochial chapel served by the Benedictines of the priory. It now bears the proud but doubly erroneous title of the Abbey Church. And the beautiful Norman chapel at Stourbridge, close to the modern Barnwell Junction, stood in a similar relation to what must have been one of the principal of the lesser Benedictine houses in England.
However, no one, unless he is a philanthropist or an impressionist painter, will go out of his way to visit Barnwell; and very few casual visitors get as far as St Giles’, unless they lose their way. The church of St Luke at New Chesterton, not far beyond, is a good modern building, and its spire forms a prominent feature in the view of Cambridge from the Ely Road. Returning to the Round Church, where the two main arteries of Cambridge meet, we turn to the right past St John’s Chapel and the Divinity Schools.[9] Between the latter building and Whewell’s Court of Trinity is a triangular space which is the site of All Saints’ Church. All Saints’ formed, rather more than thirty years ago, a somewhat interesting feature in the streets of Cambridge, for its tower projected into the street, and the pavement ran through an archway beneath it. It was removed when Whewell’s Court was built, and Mr G. F. Bodley erected a handsome new church just opposite Jesus College. All Saints’ is, like St Clement’s, a Jesus living. This later building is the best of modern Cambridge churches. Its spire is very good, and the east window is a curious experiment by the late Sir Edward Burne-Jones and Mr William Morris. The present Dean of Lichfield, who is a Jesus man, has also enriched the church with a charming little window by Mr Kempe. However, old All Saints’ has gone the way of one or two other Cambridge churches—as, for instance, the older St Peter’s, which was taken down to make way for Little St Mary’s, and St John the Baptist’s, which was near Clare. This open space and disused churchyard are its only memorial. The column in the centre was the gift of one Mr Boott, an American, who wished to erect some memorial to Kirke White in Cambridge.
Before we return to Great St Mary’s, we pass the Decorated church of St Michael, which was built by Hervé de Staunton in 1337, and served as a chapel to his foundation of Michael House. It is a fine church, a good deal modernised, but containing sedilia in the chancel, which are not unlike those at St Edward’s. The stalls in the choir are very complete, and are very excellent examples of fifteenth-century woodwork. At the end of the south aisle is a picture of Charles I. which bears a very close resemblance to the famous frontispiece of the Eikon Basilike. When Henry VIII. amalgamated the numerous foundations in this quarter of the town, and founded Trinity College, this church, like Great St Mary’s, became college property, and the living is still in the gift of Trinity. In St Michael’s was buried Paul Fagius, the Lutheran Hebraist, who lectured in Cambridge and died there during the reign of Edward VI. His bones, however, were exhumed to gratify Queen Mary’s Commissioners in 1557, and were burned with those of Bucer in the Market Place. This is one of the few historical facts which we can connect with Cambridge churches. They are, architecturally speaking, much more interesting than the churches of many old towns, and people who are weary of the sameness of the churches crowded together in places like Norwich or Colchester will turn to these with relief. But their records are barren, and, although we know a certain amount about Barnwell Priory, we should like to know more. While of the Templars’ church absolutely no record remains, and the building merely informs us with a baffling reticence that Cambridge must at one time, among its religious houses, have numbered a rich and important Commandery of that glorious but unfortunate Order.
FOOTNOTES
[1] E.g. Brancepeth and Sedgefield, Co. Durham.
[2] Merton College was founded in 1264, but its corporate existence does not actually begin till 1274. Similarly, Peterhouse, founded in 1281, did not possess buildings or enjoy a common life till 1284, the year of Hugh de Balsham’s death.