Church of St Mary, Buckden, Cambs - Stone Church Artefacts on Waymarking.com

St Mary’s still exists today as a beautiful medieval church.

In common with nearly all old English churches its chancel screen with the images of the Virgin and St John adoring Christ on the Cross was destroyed at the Reformation but many other features are still to be seen practically unchanged through the centuries.

The church of St Mary consists of a chancel with a modern organ chamber, and vestry on the north, a nave, north aisle, south aisle, west tower and south porch. The walls are of rubble with stone dressing, and the roofs are covered in lead.

Although mentioned in the Domesday survey of 1086, nothing of this date remains; the earliest existing portions being the south doorway of the nave (which is early 13th Century) and parts of the chancel wall, a triple sedilia and piscina which date from the latter part of the same century. The 13th Century chancel retains its original size and structure. The tower was built or rebuilt in the 14th Century. Between 1432 and 1435 Bishop William Grey and Prebend John Depyng put new windows in the chancel, built the south aisle, the north and south arcades, the clerestorey, the chancel arch and rebuilt the upper storeys of the tower. The north aisle was added about twenty years later and the south porch about 1480, thus completing the building as seen to-day. The axis of the building is off-centre probably owing to the builder's concern about the north aisle collapsing into the moat present at the time.

Considerable repairs to the roofs took place in 1649 and 1665, and large buttresses were added on the north side in the 18th Century. The church was restored in 1840, 1860 and 1884 when the present vestry and organ chamber were built, and again in 1909 when the seating was renewed and the font removed to the south aisle of the church.

For more information on the history of the church, times of services and details of current activities, please visit the website of St. Mary's Church at www.ely.anglican.org/parishes/buckden

Approximate Age of Artefact: 14th - 18th century Relevant Website: [Web Link]

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