CHURCHES.
There was a parish church by the
12th century, whose advowson was attached to
Upperhall manor by 1201, when it was confirmed to Henry FitzHervey. (fn. 29) In 1238 it was
disputed between the widow of Ranulf
FitzHenry and John FitzHenry. (fn. 30) About 1273
John FitzJohn granted the advowson to the
bishop of Ely. (fn. 31) In 1335 Bishop John Hotham,
supposedly on account of the poverty of the fellows and scholars of Peterhouse, appropriated
the rectory to that college. The grant was confirmed in 1363 by Bishop Simon Langham. (fn. 32) In
1370 Bishop John Barnet presented, but it was
not until 1395 that the appropriation was confirmed, the advowson of the vicarage remaining
with Peterhouse thereafter. In 1979 Teversham
was combined with Cherry Hinton, whose vicar
served both parishes thereafter. (fn. 33)
In 1279 the rectorial glebe comprised 100 a.
(40 ha.), and from the early 15th century until
inclosure was reckoned at c. 110-120 a. (45-50
ha.). (fn. 34) The main portions lay in Fendon and
Yenton fields, the rest being divided between the
four other fields. When the tithes were commuted
at inclosure, Peterhouse was allotted 230 a. for
its part of them, besides 114 a. for its glebe, while
the vicar, who had previously had only 2 a. of
pasture around his house, received another 4½ a.
as glebe and 103 a. for the tithe. (fn. 35) Between 1892
and 1909 c. 45 a. of it was sold in new Cherry
Hinton, and in 1909 the remaining 75 a. were
leased to the Pamplin brothers. (fn. 36) In 1913 the
vicar arranged for other portions of his land along
Coldhams Lane to be sold. Further sales during
the 20th century left him with c. 20 a. (8 ha.)
north of the parish church (fn. 37) until 1985, when that
land too was sold and an old people's home was
built there. (fn. 38)
In 1256, when the rectory was worth £19 10s.,
the rector was assisted by a vicar paid £2. (fn. 39) In
1291 the rectory was taxed at £17 6s. (fn. 40) In 1535
it was worth £21 13s., and the vicarage £6 18s. (fn. 41)
The vicarage was worth £22 in 1767 and £25 in
1807. (fn. 42) Between 1859 and 1881 it yielded £164,
and by 1898 its net income was £215. (fn. 43) It
declined in value thereafter, and in 1955 its
income of £588 was supplemented by £200 from
the Church Commissioners. (fn. 44)
There is no evidence for a vicarage house
before 1500, but in 1638 such a house was burnt
down. (fn. 45) A house with two hearths in 1664 may
have housed the vicar. (fn. 46) There was a vicarage
house in the late 18th century, with three servants residing there. (fn. 47) In 1818 a new vicarage
house was built opposite the parish church by
Berwick Bridge, then vicar. (fn. 48) In 1851 the vicar
shared it with a tenant. In 1866 it was considerably enlarged by W. S. Parish, then vicar, and
it was in good repair in 1875. (fn. 49) It reputedly had
three kitchens, and could seat fifty people in the
dining room. (fn. 50) In 1885 it was repaired with
money from Queen Anne's Bounty, and continued in use during the late 19th century and
the early 20th. (fn. 51) By the 1960s, however, it had
been sold to make way for flats, but part of its
stables were preserved, being used by the boy
scouts in the late 20th century. (fn. 52) A new vicarage
house on the corner of Dale Close and Fulbourn
Old Drift Road was built in 1956-7.
In the early 14th century Hinton was held by
a succession of rectors, some of whom only
served for between two and six years. (fn. 53) Stephen
Randolph, presented in 1370, was deprived in
1372 and replaced by Robert Braybrooke, who
held the living in plurality, exchanging it in 1379
with his brother Reginald, who held it until at
least 1388. (fn. 54) In 1401 the first vicar was appointed
by the master of Peterhouse. John Holbrooke,
former master of Peterhouse and chancellor of
Cambridge University, served as vicar from
1430 until 1436. In the 15th and early 16th centuries most incumbents, except for William
Skelton, vicar 1486-1533, only served for a few
years. (fn. 55)
In 1279 there was a chantry dedicated to All
Saints of which Walter of Hinton was chaplain,
with 6 a. belonging to it. Two former chantry
chapels, named Laynes and Wards, were
recorded c. 1592-1712. (fn. 56)
In the late 16th century and the early 17th the
living was generally held briefly by former fellows of Peterhouse. (fn. 57) That pattern continued,
with the vicarage sometimes being held in plurality by influential churchmen, in the early 18th
century. (fn. 58) Walter Serocold, minister 1758-89,
was succeeded by his son-in-law George
Borlase. (fn. 59) In 1807 the vicar acted as chaplain to
the Cambridge county gaol. (fn. 60) During the 19th
century notable incumbents included Berwick
Bridge (1816-33) and W. S. Parish (1851-80),
son-in-law of John Okes of Cherry Hinton Hall,
who oversaw the parish church's restoration. (fn. 61)
His successor, James Porter, combined the vicarage with the mastership of Peterhouse between
1880 and 1882. (fn. 62) T. A. Walker, a former fellow
of Peterhouse, vicar 1908-17, was a historian
and an international lawyer. After the First
World War the living ceased to be held by fellows of the College. (fn. 63) L. G. Forrest, who served
as vicar between 1948 and 1966, was involved
in the creation of new parishes of St. Martin's
and St. James's on the borders of the ancient
parish of Cherry Hinton.
In 1603 there were 40 communicants. (fn. 64) In
1775 there was a service each Sunday. In 1807
the weekly service was held on Sunday afternoons in order to encourage attendance, and c.
1825-85 services held both in the mornings and
afternoons were well attended. Between 1807
and 1836 the number of communicants
increased slightly from 25 to 30, and to 32 in
1873, rising to 57 in 1885, and to 126 in 1897.
Communion was held three times a year in 1807,
monthly in 1836 and 1873, weekly in 1885, and
fortnightly in 1897 and 2001.
The parish church, named for ST.
ANDREW, has stood at the northern end of the
ancient village since the Middle Ages. (fn. 65) The
church comprises a chancel with north vestry,
nave with north and south aisles, south porch,
and west tower. The exterior of the chancel and
the west tower are made from clunch and
Barnack stone rubble, and the aisles from flint
rubble. Although heavily restored in the 19th
century, Cherry Hinton is one of the finest and
most complete Early English parish churches in
the county.
The earliest features are the later 12thcentury responds of the tower arch, which have
small attached shafts with plain capitals on their
eastern angles, and the core of the tower which
is at a slightly different angle to the rest of the
building. The nave, aisles, and chancel are the
result of a single building campaign c. 1215-25.
The five-bayed north and south arcades have
pointed arches of two complex moulded orders
with labels, moulded capitals, quatrefoil piers
with small keels between the shafts, and 19thcentury moulded bases, apparently copying
13th-century originals. Before restoration both
north and south aisles had 13th-century string
courses, buttresses, and doors. The chancel
arch, which is linked with the eastern responds
of the arcades, has three hollow-chamfered
orders on responds comprising shafts separated
by fillets. The chancel itself is the same width
as the nave, and has eight lancet windows in each
side wall: the east window is 16th-century, but
it was probably originally a group of stepped
lancets. The north and south chancel windows
are paired and set into an internal wall arcade
with moulded cinquefoiled rere arches with a
continuous label, detached stones with moulded
capitals, shaft rings and bases extending below
the window sills to rest on a string course. A
double piscina with a continuous moulded label
and square frame, trefoiled openings with dogtooth ornament and detached shafts, and a
stepped, triple sedilia with a label with mask
stops are integrated into the composition of the
south wall. There is also a contemporary south
doorway.
The aisles were refenestrated, reroofed, and
provided with parapets in the later 14th century.
The north aisle windows have two-centred
heads and cusped reticulated tracery with super
mullions and transoms. The south aisle windows
also have reticulated tracery and super mullions,
but their four-centred heads are slightly later.
Until the late 18th century the east ends of both
sides were enclosed by parclose screens. That
on the south side had painted figures of a man
and a woman, probably the donors, in mid 15thcentury dress, and an inscription seeking prayers
for the souls of John Thryplaw and his wife
Margaret painted on the wall. The muchrestored rood screen is late 15th- or early 16thcentury, as are the benches surviving in the
north aisle.
Considerable work was done to the church in
the early 16th century. The north vestry and the
south porch were added, and the chancel was
remodelled. The eastern lancets were replaced
by a window with a depressed four-centred head
and five cusped lights, and the chancel was
reroofed with a shallow pitched roof of four bays
with cambered, moulded tiebeams with small
curved braces, moulded principal rafters, purlins, and ridge pieces, an embattled wall plate,
and large braces and wall posts against the end
walls. The top of the chancel arch was rebuilt
and perhaps heightened. The tower was refaced
internally and externally, an internal stair turret
was added, and a west window of three lights
similar to that at the chancel east end was
inserted. A clerestory, shown in 1774 as having
three-light windows similar to the east and west
windows, and a square window over the chancel
arch to light the rood were also apparently added
in the 16th century.
In the early 18th century the chancel was
restored by William Watson, who installed a
classical reredos, but in 1774 William Cole found
'the whole Chancel ... squalid and dirty'. The
clerestory fell in 1792, and the nave roof was
rebuilt in 1793. The lead from the 16th-century
roof was sold to pay for the repairs, and the
church also appears to have been reseated at this
time, for the benches described in 1774 had
largely gone by 1845, as had the parclose screens.
Because of the extensive use of clunch both
internally and externally, the church was in frequent need of repair: in 1875 G. Gilbert Scott
remarked 'the state of the walls is such that no
mere repairing will suffice'. (fn. 66) As part of the restoration of the nave between 1875 and 1880, the
window above the chancel arch was removed, and
the bases of the arcades, the aisle walls, and the
porch were rebuilt to G. Gilbert Scott's designs,
which sought to follow the medieval originals. (fn. 67)
A new lectern was installed, and in 1883 a new
pulpit, also designed by Scott, was substituted
for one of the late 16th or early 17th century,
which was moved to Teversham church. (fn. 68) Much
of the work was paid for by the master of
Peterhouse, but a litany desk was presented by a
local working man in 1887. (fn. 69) In 1891 the chancel
was refurbished with new panelling and choir
stalls, at the expense of Peterhouse, along with a
new organ paid for by subscription. (fn. 70)
The font, which has a circular bowl with plain
tapering sides, is late 12th- or early 13th-century,
and had a five-shafted base until 1811 when the
present pedestal was substituted. A 13th-century
altar slab with ovule moulded edge, probably that
recorded in 1845 as being set into the floor, has
been reset in the south aisle. The north aisle wall
bears numerous 18th-and early 19th-century tablets to members of the Serocold and PearceSerocold families, and the chancel contains
several black marble floor slabs to them.
The church had one chalice c. 1278 and three
with patens, two double gilt, in 1552. (fn. 71) A new
cup and paten were probably obtained c. 1569,
while Dr. Richard Cooke, vicar 1666-90 (d.
1704), probably bequeathed two stand-patens. (fn. 72)
Of the four bells recorded in 1552, (fn. 73) two, of the
14th and 15th centuries with inscriptions in
Lombardic and Gothic script, one to the Virgin
Mary, have probably survived. The other three
were cast in 1727, 1828, and, replacing a 15thcentury one, 1853. (fn. 74)
There were complaints about the state of the
churchyard in 1926, (fn. 75) but it was well maintained
in the late 20th century through volunteer work.
Grants from the Historic Churches Trust kept
the church in good repair in the late 20th century. A green hut on the land occupied by Cherry
Hinton Infants School served as the parish hall
from c. 1902 until 1985, when it was replaced
by a purpose-built parish centre attached to the
north side of the church. (fn. 76) St. Andrew's parish
registers, beginning as early as 1538, are substantially complete. (fn. 77)
In the early 1890s there began a vigorous campaign to establish a second parish and parish
church to serve new Cherry Hinton. (fn. 78) The
ecclesiastical parish of ST. JOHN THE
EVANGELIST, established in 1897, lay in the
quadrangle bounded by Hills, Cherry Hinton,
and Mowbray Roads, and Queen Edith's Way.
Its advowson was assigned to the bishop of Ely. (fn. 79)
Two sites were purchased on Hills Road, the
first for the church, the second for a parish
school. (fn. 80) Initially services were conducted in the
chapel of Cavendish College, but by 1897 the
first two bays of the nave, of red brick faced with
stone, were built in the Gothic style. Between
1903 and 1913 there was further fund-raising,
and by the outbreak of the First World War the
northern transept had been erected. (fn. 81) In 1928
the western extension of the nave was completed, and a chapel on the north side of the
earlier chancel was added in 1955.
A. E. Love, vicar 1903-14, made considerable
efforts to augment the new living. Its net income
was £60 c. 1897-1900, and in 1918 there were
annuities worth £125, along with £39 from
Queen Anne's Bounty. (fn. 82) Two different sites
were acquired for a vicarage house in 1899 and
1912, and in 1956-7 one was built on Luard
Road by the architect who designed the new
vicarage house for St. Andrew's. (fn. 83)