Sites maintained by English Heritage in Cambridgeshire

Denny Abbey and Farmland Museum

Denny Abbey is just off the A10, about halfway between Cambridge and Ely.

The building was originally a Benedictine monastery, founded in 1159. By the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s it was a nunnery run by the “Poor Clares”. After the Dissolution the buildings became a farm, and they stayed that way until the 1960s. 

A notable tenant of the farm was Thomas Hobson (1544-1631) who was a carrier who kept a large stable of horses. When these were not needed for his business they were rented out to Cambridge students who always had to take the horse that was offered to them and not their personal preference. This is the origin of the expression “Hobson’s Choice”.

Visitors can trace the history of Denny Abbey from nunnery to farm – some of the nuns’ original floor tiles survived from when their refectory became a barn.

Some of the farm buildings house the Farmland Museum which displays items relating to the history of farming in the region. These include recreations of craftsmen’s workshops, a fenman’s hut from the 19^th century and a village shop from the 1930s.

Duxford Chapel

This is in the village of Whittlesford (near Duxford) in the far south of Cambridgeshire. 

It is a complete and well-preserved 14^th century chantry chapel that was originally part of the Hospital of St John but is the only building that remains from that time.

 

A chantry chapel was dedicated for the purpose of holding masses for the soul of a named person, normally someone of wealth who had stipulated in his or her will that this be done.  The practice was suppressed in 1545 during the reign of King Edward VI, and Duxford Chapel became a barn that was used by the owners of the Red Lion inn next door (which also survives).

Isleham Priory Church

Isleham is a small village to the southeast of Ely, close to the border with Suffolk. It is a remarkable survival from the past, being an almost perfectly preserved example of a Norman Benedictine priory church.

The priory was founded in 1090 but dissolved in 1414 – long before the Dissolution of the Monasteries under King Henry VIII. The church owes its preservation to having been used as a barn for much of its subsequent existence.

Longthorpe Tower

Longthorpe is a suburb of Peterborough, a cathedral city in north Cambridgeshire. 

Longthorpe Tower was built in about 1300 as part of a fortified manor house, which has since disappeared. The tower, which is three storeys high, is not only an unusual structure to find in the heart of a city suburb, surrounded by modern housing estates, but it contains an important and very rare set of domestic wall paintings that date from the 14^th century.

The paintings had been covered by whitewash at some point in the 16^th century and only rediscovered in 1945. They adorn the walls and vault of the Great Chamber at the top of the tower.

The paintings have been described as a “spiritual encyclopedia”, although the subject matter is both religious and secular. Along with scenes of everyday life and representations of locally found birds there are depictions of the “Seven Ages of Man”, the “Labours of the Months” and “Wheel of the Senses”.

© John Welford

St David's Cathedral, Wales

St David’s Cathedral is the largest church in Wales, but its home city is the smallest in Great Britain.

St David

Legend has it that David (Dewi in Welsh) was born (in about the year 500) on a clifftop during a wild storm. His mother, Non, is also recognised as a saint and the bay below the supposed birth site is known as St Non’s Bay.

David founded several monasteries in Wales and further afield, including Brittany. St David’s Cathedral, in Pembrokeshire, stands on the site of one of his monastic foundations.

David insisted that his monks should live as simply as possible, refraining from meat and beer, and having no personal possessions. He had a particular liking for leeks, which is why the leek is one of the symbols of Wales.

He died in his monastery at what is now St David’s. The year of his death is disputed, although it was probably around the year 590, which would have meant that he was about 90 years old. The tradition is that he died on 1^st March, which has been recognized for centuries as St David’s Day.

David was venerated as a saint by Pope Calixtus II in 1120. He ruled that two pilgrimages to the shrine of St David were equivalent to one pilgrimage in Rome, in terms of the spiritual reward that would accrue to the pilgrim. David has long been recognised as the patron saint of Wales.

The Cathedral

The Cathedral dates from 1181, having been funded by donations from pilgrims. The current building contains work carried out in most centuries since that date, but the additions have been made in keeping with the original style.

Despite its size, the building is not particularly prominent due to its location in a hollow, this being the valley of the small River Alun.

Visitors cannot help but notice the slope in the Norman nave, which is 14 feet (4 metres) higher at the high altar than at the west end. Also impressive is the bishop’s throne, which dates from 1500 and is almost 30 feet (10 metres) high.

In front of the high altar is the tomb of Edmund Tudor, the father of Henry who defeated the English King Richard III to become King Henry VII and the founder of the Tudor line of monarchs.

During the 19^th century restoration by Sir George Gilbert Scott, bones were found in a recess behind the high altar that were widely believed to be those of St David (and at least one other person). It is possible that the contents of the original shrine were hidden here at the time of the Reformation in the 16^th century.

The Bishop’s Palace

The ruins of the Bishop’s Palace are on the other side of the River Alun. This suite of buildings, set round a large quadrangle, occupies a site that is similar in size to that of the Cathedral itself and would clearly have been very impressive when complete and a testament to the wealth of the medieval church.

The building was abandoned in the 16^th century due to the fact that Bishop Barlow had five daughters. These all needed large dowries in order to make good marriages and the bishop raised the money by gradually stripping the lead off the roof of his palace and selling it. After the fifth daughter had been suitably provided for, the building was uninhabitable.

All the daughters married bishops! The fact that the five husbands all demanded substantial dowries from Bishop Barlow, as well as the size of the original palace, says something about how the Church in Wales had changed since the time of St David. 

© John Welford