St. Mary, Bourn, Cambridgeshire

Description

The church of St. Mary, picturesquely situated on rising ground, is a spacious cruciform edifice of stone in the Transition Norman, Early English and later styles, consisting of chancel, clerestoried nave of six bays, aisles, transepts, south porch and an embattled western tower with turret stair and containing 6 bells: the tower was restored in 1912 at a cost of £960, and again in 1914: the chancel has good sedilia of the 15th century and some carved oak benches with carved figures, one of which bears the inscription, "A. P. of B. 1537:" the roof is Perpendicular and has hammer beams with modern figures of angels; the chancel arch is modern, and there remains a Perpendicular rood screen: the nave arcades are lofty and belong to the Transition Norman period, the piers being alternately circular and octagonal: the clerestory is lighted by quatrefoil openings with circles: in the north transept is a Late niche and an aumbry: the south transept has a raised floor: the tower, which is overlapped by both aisles, opens into these and to the nave by very fine and lofty Early English arches, with an ascent of three steps under the western arch: the south porch, also Early English, has a fine cross on the gable: in the nave are some good oak benches with tracery in panels, and the south transept conbains several slabs and tombs, with arms to members of the Hagar family, lords of this manor about 1750, and a memorial to the late Henry Lyell esq.: the church plate includes a silver salver, presented by Francis Hagar in 1594, and a silver chalice with the date 1569: Dowsing, the Puritan iconoclast, visited this church and destroyed two angels, some brasses and crosses on the tower and chancel: the nave was restored in 1875-8 at a cost of £1,480: there are 420 sittings.

Church Records

The register dates from the year 1564.