Church Guide (part 1)
A church building has stood in this place since Saxon times, so God has been worshipped here daily for over a thousand years.
The Church and Town
Godmanchester was chartered in the year 1212. The Domesday Book records what was probably the first church on this site, a Saxon building dating from the early eleventh century. The current church was built to serve the growing community based around the river, probably, like many Cambridgeshire churches, using stone from further up the River Great Ouse.
The oldest part of the current building dates from the thirteenth century and the building as a whole contains many interesting architectural and historical features which we hope you will enjoy discovering.
Many of the great alterations to the church – such as the aisle windows, and the rebuilding of the nave arcades and clerestory (upper storey) windows – were made during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, made possible through the growing prosperity of Godmanchester, which was described later as ‘a very great county toune’.
The tour of the church starts outside, at the west tower.
The Tower and Bells
The tower was rebuilt in 1623, though using much of the old stone from the original thirteenth-century building, and also using the same Perpendicular Gothic style. The tall spire of the church dominates the historic heart of Godmanchester.
The church’s fine set of bells, which can be heard throughout the town, were originally cast by Thomas Osborne in 1784, and were re-hung in 1870. They are used in change-ringing, an art which was first developed in this region.
In ages past, ringing the bells was the chief means of advertising church services, and they still call the faithful to worship today. One of the bells is inscribed,
“Our voices shall with joyful sound
Make hills and valley echo round.”
If you walk round the church past the south door you will see a round turret in the angle between the south aisle and the chancel, which houses a spiral stair way that once led to a small gallery round the top of the chancel screen, enabling candles to be lit near the cross and figures there.
The Mass Dial
Just to the right of the turret is a beautiful mass dial built on a buttress of the chancel wall, in the shape of a wheel window with trefoiled arches between the spokes. It is divided into eight one-and-a-half hourly periods, according to the Saxon reckoning, starting at 6am. There are only about twenty such dials in the country.
We believe that the Parish Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, Godmanchester, exists to build up the individual and corporate spiritual life of our Church and to spread the love of Christ through word and deed, by enabling those who live and work within our town to come into contact with God’s love and come to faith in Christ.