LITTLE GIDDING: ST JOHN – the narrow nave and chancel are fitted out as a miniature college chapel, with wooden panelling, Classical arcading and a ribbed barrel-vault roof

      ISLEHAM † St Andrew

      8m/13km S.E. of Ely

      OS TL643744 GPS 52.3431N, 0.4115E

      Spacious and cruciform, St Andrew’s is Decorated without, save for the W. tower by Street. The nave is resplendently panelled, clerestoried and roofed to unusual design by the mercantile family of Peyton, 1495, to whom there are some monuments. There is also a very fine Jacobean communion rail.

      KIMBOLTON † St Andrew

      7m/11km N.W. of St Neots

      OS TL099678 GPS 52.2979N, 0.3894W

      A large town church with a 14th-century tower and broach spire. A delightful Decorated oak screen with paintings, c. 1500, stands between the chancel and S. chapel, which is dominated by Montagu monuments. There is also stained glass by Louis Tiffany, 1901.

      KIRTLING † All Saints

      5m/8km S.E. of Newmarket

      OS TL686576 GPS 52.1910N, 0.4664E

      Here was once a Tudor mansion built by the Norths; the surviving gatehouse and moated site are impressive. The Norman S. doorway to the church bears a carving of Christ in Majesty on the tympanum; the door ironwork is also Norman. There are good North hatchments and monuments in the 16th-century brick-built family chapel.

      LEIGHTON BROMSWOLD † St Mary

      8m/13km W. of Huntingdon

      OS TL115752 GPS 52.3642N, 0.3629W

      The nave and tower of this 13th-century and later church were rebuilt in 1626 by the poet George Herbert, when St Mary’s ‘was so decayed, so little and so useless that the parishioners could not meet to perform their duty to God in public prayer and praises’. The old aisles were sacrificed and the new nave was married to the medieval transepts, which perform their proper function in giving breadth and freedom to the whole design. The church had in fact become a true Protestant ‘preaching space’. The roof design is bold with sturdy tie beams.

      LEVERINGTON † St Leonard

      1m/2km N.W. of Wisbech

      OS TF444114 GPS 52.6811N, 0.1359E

      A four-staged tower of many styles crowned with a Victorian spire marks out this Silt Fen church, whose Perpendicular nave supports a later clerestory. A good 14th-century porch is two-storeyed and decorated with a fine carved frieze underneath an elaborate battlement.

      LITTLE ABINGTON † St Mary

      9m/15km S.E. of Cambridge

      OS TL529491 GPS 52.1199N, 0.2326E

      Restored by St Aubyn, 1885, the church is Early Norman, especially the N. and S. nave doorways with simple chip carving. There is Kempe glass, 1901, in the chancel depicting the Adoration of the Magi.

      LITTLE GIDDING † St John

      10m/16km N.W. of Huntingdon

      OS TL127816 GPS 52.4211N, 0.3441W

      In undulating country relieved from the extreme flatness of the Fens and sheltered by a grove of trees, the tiny church survives the depopulated village and the hall, now levelled. Little Gidding is linked with Nicholas Ferrar and his unique experiment in the contemplative life. From outside the red brick is disappointing, but within there is richness in a collegiate style, the fabric mostly of the early 18th-century. Embroidered texts on the walls quote from Ferrar and from T. S. Eliot, who visited here and made a poem of his recollection of that event, which formed the last of the Four Quartets. The lines read more like an admonition on the wall than in their original context: ‘You are not here to verify, / Instruct yourself, or inform curiosity / Or carry report. You are here to kneel / Where prayer has been valid.’

      MADINGLEY † St Mary Magdalene

      4m/6km N.W. of Cambridge

      OS TL395603 GPS 52.2236N, 0.0409E

      An idyllic park setting above a little lake; the tower parapet incorporates Saxon tomb fragments. A fair mixed bag of fittings includes a 14th-century bell, and there are monuments to the Hyndes and Cottons. Interesting for its location as much as the building.

      MARCH † St Wendreda

      14m/22km E. of Peterborough

       OS TL415952 GPS 52.5364N, 0.0850E

      The crowning glory of St Wendreda’s is the double hammer-beam roof with a host of angels; the finest in the county. The church is all Decorated and Perpendicular, apart from the chancel by W. Smith, 1872.

      ORTON LONGUEVILLE † Holy Trinity

      S.W. district of Peterborough

       OS TL168965 GPS 52.5540N, 0.2783W

      This is a 13th- and 14th-century church with W. tower built in 1672. In the N. chapel is an early 17th-century funeral helm with vizor and spike; in the N. aisle a fine early 16th-century wall-painting of the upper half of St Christopher.

      RAMSEY † St Thomas of Canterbury

      10m/16km S.E. of Peterborough

      OS TL290851 GPS 52.4491N, 0.1022W

      The church is a monastic relic from the old abbey and was actually built as a hospitum, standing on the fringe of the compact little town. The body of the structure is early 12th-century, and the vaulted chancel late-Norman; the W. tower dates from 1672. The presence of a 13th-century font and re-used materials of that date in the tower suggest parochial use from that time. There is late glass by Morris & Co.

      ST NEOTS † St Mary

      8m/12km S.W. of Huntingdon

      OS TL184601 GPS 52.2269N, 0.2670W

      Tucked away on the fringe of this small market community, the church is a luxurious 15th-century building with perhaps the finest tower in the county. The church is faced in ironstone and pebbles with ashlar dressings, an agreeable contrast in colour and texture. The roof is almost flat, not over-elaborate but very English and most satisfying. Almost everything a good town church should be.

      SNAILWELL † St Peter

      3m/4km N. of Newmarket

      OS TL642675 GPS 52.2818N, 0.4059E

      Set against a backdrop of trees, the church has a 12th-century round tower with tall belfry lights. There is a good deal of 14th-century work, a Perpendicular clerestory and a hammer-beam roof.