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Chesterton

            St Andrew, Chesterton, Cambridge

St Andrew's is a large former village church in the densely-packed suburbs of north-east Cambridge. Chesterton was once a village in the water meadows north of the Cam, its parish extending at its most westerly point, a mile or so from the village, to contain the northern medieval suburb of Cambridge which included the castle. Chesterton became a 19th Century industrial and market-gardening suburb, but it was still a separate urban district until 1912 when the boundaries were redrawn so that it became a part of Cambridge, almost doubling the population of the city. The historic centre of old Chesterton was finally physically joined to the rest of urban Cambridge by the Elizabeth Bridge in 1971.

The church is long, aisled and clerestoried, with a landmark spire visible from the river and from higher buildings in the centre of the city. Until the end of the 20th Century the church was overshadowed by the large Pye Radio factory, once manufacturers of radios and televisions, but this has now gone to be replaced by a sea of apartment blocks. Still, it is possible to tell that there was once a village here, with the 18th Century former vicarage to the north-east, and a large grange to the north-west on the edge of the old High Street.

Internally, St Andrew is pretty much all of several successive restorations of the 19th Century, and a dismal reordering of the 1970s. There is a large scheme of generally underwhelming glass by a number of lesser 19th Century workshops. But all of that can be forgiven, because the great star here is one of East Anglia's best 15th Century doom paintings above the chancel arch and the eastern ends of the arcades. The south (Hell) side is best, with the dead rising from their graves and being stuffed down into Hell by grinning devils. You can still see the outline left by the vanished cross of the rood in the centre.

The other major survival is a pair of large, upright bench ends of civilian youths of the early 15th Century. They are presumably precursors of the local youths who in 1579, incited by the parish constable Thomas Parish,  ambushed and beat up, in the grounds of the church, university students who had come to Chesterton to challenge the locals to a game of football. Indeed, there has been a long history of unease between Chesterton and the University of Cambridge, mostly due to the suburb's reputation for lawlessness, which lasted into my lifetime. This reputation probably arose because of the proximity to Chesterton of the grounds of Stourbridge Fair, the biggest medieval fair in England, on the other side of the river. When the Fair was at its height, hundreds of small punts and barges would ferry customers across to brothels, ale-houses, cock-pits, bear-baiting, bull-baiting and the like. The university finally suppressed these last two activities in Chesterton in 1581.

I was in the choir of this church from 1970 to 1976, and head chorister for part of that time, under the late, great, Barry Eaden, who made this one of the foremost church choirs in the east of England. I still have dreams set in this building.

The church is open every day.

Taken on: February 13, 2017

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Cambridge

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Sets appears in: • Chesterton, Cambridge

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Camera: Nikon D5300, f/11.0, 1/500 sec, 18mm (=27mm), ISO 400 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D5300
Aperture:	f/11.0
Exposure Time:	0.002 sec (1/500)
Focal Length:	18mm (35mm equivalent: 27mm)
ISO:	400
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Not Defined
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Scene Capture Type:	Landscape
Gain Control:	Low gain up
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Microsoft Windows Photo Viewer 6.1.7600.16385
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