Cambridge and Its CollegesThompson, A. Hamilton (Alexander Hamilton)
History
Cambridge and Its Colleges
Thompson, A. Hamilton (Alexander Hamilton)
University of Cambridge
Lower down, on the same side of Bridge Street, a very ignominious spire
invites us to St Clement’s, a church in the gift of Jesus College. This
spire was built from a bequest of Cole, the well-known antiquary, early
in the century, and above the west door is inscribed the punning motto,
“Deum Cole.” The body of the church is Early English. St Clement’s is
the last church on the east side of the river. St Giles’, just beyond
Magdalene, is a large modern church with an unfinished west end, but its
history is not uninteresting. There is no doubt that the priory church
of St Giles stood on this site, under the shadow of the castle. A Norman
arch from the old church has been incorporated in the south aisle of
the present building; and, across the street, the interesting little
church of St Peter, whose detail is partially Norman, doubtless served
as an extra chapel. However, as the importance of the house increased,
it removed to the suburb of Barnwell. We know that the monastery was
founded by Hugolina Picot and her husband, somewhere about 1090. The
Barnwell removal took place in 1122, under the auspices of Pain Peverel,
standard-bearer to Robert of Normandy. In Barnwell, the squalid suburb
of Cambridge which lies between the Newmarket Road and Parker’s Piece,
no remains of the actual priory exist. It stood somewhere near the ugly
modern church, which, although it is the parish church of St Andrew the
Less, is called Christ Church. The little Early English building further
down the Newmarket Road was, we may presume, a parochial chapel served
by the Benedictines of the priory. It now bears the proud but doubly
erroneous title of the Abbey Church. And the beautiful Norman chapel at
Stourbridge, close to the modern Barnwell Junction, stood in a similar
relation to what must have been one of the principal of the lesser
Benedictine houses in England.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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