PIDLEY & WOODHURST
PIDLEY : CHURCH OF ALL SAINTS
Church Post Code PE28 3DA
Open to visitors
It was a gloriously sunny and warm Sunday afternoon; early August 2014. David and I had spent the afternoon in the Cambridgeshire Fens; with the day’s photography ending in an evening prayer, the destination that evening lost in the mists of time! We had visited all four churches in this benefice; with All Saints at Pidley sharing a benefice with Somersham, Woodhurst and Old Hurst; with all of these churches covered on this site.
Pidley and neighbouring Fenton form a single parish, which was mentioned as far back as 1225, with the population of both combined being 421 at the time of the 2021 census.
Pidley can be found two miles to the west of Somersham with Warboys a similar distance away to the north west; and is far off to the extreme south east of the catchment area of my sites, with Peterborough around 20 miles away to the north west.
The English really are delightfully eccentric at times and this is illustrated well by the sign at the entrance to the village proclaiming ‘Pidley : Home of The Mountain Rescue Team’. Just for a little context here for those who don’t know the area; we are in the middle of the flat Cambridgeshire Fens with the highest point in the parish being 88 feet above sea level. I attempted to Google ‘How close is Pidley to the nearest mountain?’ but it didn’t want to know!
The mountain rescue team here is a charitable fundraiser which puts on events to raise money to buy equipment for disadvantaged and disabled in Huntingdonshire, which included freefall parachute jumping for Teddy bears.
Notable residents included Ex England woman’s cricketer Charlotte Edwards who at the time of typing this is one month in to her new job as head coach to the women’s national team. The village pub is called the ‘Mad Cat, which is my second favourite pub/restaurant name, which is beaten only by the Ghandi in Sandy’ Indian restaurant in Bedfordshire.
The church of All Saints can be found at the north west of the village, alongside the main road which runs through the village as it wends its way towards Somersham.
The church of All Saints can be found at the north west of the village, alongside the main road which runs through the village as it wends its way towards Somersham.
There was an ancient church here which dated back to the 12th century. This consisted of west tower, with a modern wooden bell turret, aisleless nave, south porch and chancel. At the time that it was pulled down in 1863 the south door of the chancel and the north door of the nave were the oldest surviving parts; each dating back to the 12th century. Perhaps this church looked similar to the church at nearby Woodhurst today, which also has a wooden bell turret.
The church was rebuilt on the same site between 1864 and 1865, using much material from the demolished church. It was rebuilt by W Fawcett of Cambridge and was rebuilt on pretty much the same lines as the previous, with west tower, aisleless nave, south porch and chancel but this rebuilt church did contain a north vestry. There is a single two light square headed window in the west wall of the vestry which dates from the 14th century.
There are three bells in the ring here, which are all dated 1675 and cast by Christopher Gray, who is listed as an itinerant founder before working from a foundry in Ampthill in Bedfordshire; then on to Haddenham in Cambridgeshire, where he was operating from when this ring of three was cast. These were removed from the old church and added to the new.
When Revd Owen compiled his study of the church bells in Huntingdonshire, which was published in 1899 he noted that the bells here were ‘clean and well cared for’.
It was quiet and peaceful in the church grounds, despite the close proximity of the main road; with little traffic out on this warm Sunday afternoon. Taking a look at the exterior, the tower is small with a two light window at the western side. There is a small two light shuttered window at the belfry stage on all sides except the east.
A small spire of red tile extends upwards from the tower; the roofs of nave and chancel are tiled and steeply pitched.
The church was open to visitors and moving inside, there is nothing too much to say. The interior is lined with brick with the chancel arch consisting of alternating bands of brick and stone. A red carpet runs the length of the nave and up to the chancel. The reredos against the east wall contains part of Revelation Chapter 12 verses 7 ‘Blessing and wisdom honour and might’ with a cross central. Fixtures and fittings all appear to date from the 1860’s rebuilding.
There is some fine stained glass here, which was made by stained glass artist William Glasby in 1930. The east window is of three lights and shows the risen Christ ascending, flanked by angels, hands outstretched with wounds visible on hands and feet; dressed in white but with a billowing symbolically blood red cloak and nimbus. Script above reads ‘I ascend to my Father and your Father’. This scene is slightly unusual in that it does not include any of the disciples below.
A single light window shows a beautiful depiction of Jesus as the light of the world. Christ again has symbolic blood red cloak and nimbus; and again his wounds are visible. In this depiction he still wears the crown of thorns.
A third window from the same artist shows the Virgin and child. Mary the mother of Jesus holds her child tenderly but Jesus looks outwards at the onlooker rather than at his mother; each have shimmering nimbus. They are flanked by Lilies which symbolise purity; with the whole compiled in subtle pastel shades. Exquisite!
This is a small parish church set in picturesque surroundings. To be fair there is not a great deal to mention and there is not a great deal of history with it being a Victorian rebuild; but it is a beautiful little church and I enjoyed visiting it very much. A couple of the exterior shots below were taken on a previous visit, with the sun starting to set and the shadows lengthening.
WOODHURST : CHURCH OF ST JOHN THE BAPTIST
Church Post Code PE28 3BN
Open to visitors
It was early April, Ash Wednesday to be exact, the first day of Lent and it was a full day’s churchcrawl, with the day starting in the Cambridgeshire Fens. We had started off with a visit to Chatteris; then heading south west to Hemingford Abbots and Hemingford Grey; attending an Ash Wednesday service at the latter. Then showing an almost complete lack of planning on my part, we headed back in the direction that we had come from; exploring the four churches in the Somersham Benefice, which along with Woodhurst consists of Old Hurst, Pidley and Somersham.
Old Hurst, with its interesting zoo, is across the flat Fenland fields to the North West. Pidley is three and a half miles or so to the north east, less distance as the crow flies. Somersham is a little further off in roughly the same direction. St Ives is four miles to the south.
The village here is a surviving example of an Anglo Saxon ring village; with the village covered by two roads, South Street and Church Street, which form a rectangle. Admittedly it resembles a rectangle which has been drawn by someone who has had slightly too much Polish Vodka! Most but not all of the buildings are contained within this rectangle.
There was no mention of a church or a priest here at the time of the Domesday Survey in 1086, although two churches were recorded in St Ives and it is suspected that one of these might have been the chapel at Woodhurst.
The church of St John the Baptist can be found central to the north of the village. There were two serious fires in the village in 1834 and 1877 with many old houses destroyed as a result. At one point there was no fewer than seven public houses in the village with the population being somewhere around the 500 mark. The population at the time of the 2021 census was 394 with no pub in the village.
This was a revisit; David and I previously visiting on a glorious summer evening back in 2013; arriving just after an evening prayer service had finished and spending a little time with some friendly locals. It was always the intention to pop back one day to take a further look around; this finally happening around 12 years after the initial visit. No point in rushing!
The church that we see today consists of wooden bell turret, which rises up from the west end of the nave, nave with south aisle and clerestory to north and south, south porch and chancel. The oldest surviving part of the structure is the nave which dates from the late 12th century. The south arcade is mid 13th century with the south aisle, which was rebuilt, dating from the late 14th century.
The wooden bell turret dates from the 17th century and the gabled south porch and the chancel each being 19th century; with the church being restored in 1871.
There is a single bell hanging here; with this dating from 1624 and being cast by William Haulsey of St Ives in 1624, with an inscription, which my spell checker didn’t care for, reading ‘Hee that will be meri let him be meri in the Lord’.
Revd Owen’s study noted that there were two further bells here that were ‘broken and unhung since 1871’. These were sold for £25 to Taylor of Loughborough. The first of these was another from Haulsey, with this one dated 1621; the other cast by Charles Newman of Norwich in 1695.
This is a small and very beautiful parish church. The wooden bell turret rises up from the western end of the nave. The roods of the nave and chancel are steeply pitched and the clerestory is possibly the smallest that I have ever seen; with two tiny three light windows to both north and south.
The gabled porch is Victorian as is the chancel, which is built from small bricks rather than the rubble that the rest of the church is built from.
A variety of heads gave out at those in the church grounds; some very weathered which includes a female figure wearing a wimple. One similar female figure has had her facial features weathered away completely, with what appears to have been an attempt to re drill the eyes not going well!
According to the Benefice website the church here is open on Wednesdays and Sundays for private prayer and visitors. The sun was shining brightly, there was hardly a cloud in the sky, the church was indeed open to visitors; we were good to go!
Despite the very small nature of the clerestory windows, it was bright and welcoming inside, with the sun streaming in through the south windows on this glorious spring morning; with the fact that there is no stained glass to be found here helping in that respect.
The south arcade is of four bays, with circular piers and capitals; at the west end of the nave there is the faintest outline of a skeleton painted on to the wall, to the north of the three light west window.
A timber post with cross beam can be seen to the west end of the nave, a rope to the single remaining bell is at ground level. There are no vertigo inducing ladders or cramped circular stair turrets here!
As mentioned earlier the chancel was rebuilt in a period of Victorian restoration with the chancel arch being mostly a Victorian rebuild but which rests on 13th century corbels. Nave is separated from chancel by an oak screen, with a carving of the crucifixion over the top; Mary the mother of Jesus and John in their traditional positions alongside the cross. Mary is dressed in her traditional blue robs, with hands clenched together in prayer. John holds a book, no doubt symbolic of the Gospel of John, Revelation and three letters which are attributed to him in the New Testament. Both look upwards to the crucified Christ.
Moving in to the chancel itself, there is no sedilia or piscina, with what originally would have been there not being incorporated in to the rebuilding. The east window is of three lights and clear glass. The altar is plain and simple with just a cross and candlesticks; the altar cloth was white, which is the liturgical colour used on the Feast of the Transfiguration; observed on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday. This would be replaced by a purple cloth on Ash Wednesday with red, symbolic of Jesus’ blood, used as we enter Holy Week.
The east end of the south aisle retains some of its history with a piscina mounted in to the south wall close to the altar; which would have been used in the washing of the holy vessels used during the Mass in pre reformation days.
There are four wooden benches in the nave which date from the 17th century, with one having a date of 1631 carved in to it. These seemed to be very low in height, and on our initial visit it caused some amusement when David, who is six feet five inches, sat on one! A little research before uploading this suggested that the average height for a man in England in the early years of the 17th century was around 5 feet 6 inches. For women it was a fraction over 5 feet.
The font is of great age, with its plain octagonal bowl dating from the 13th century, which rests on a more recent tapered stem.
Moving outside, church grounds are interesting, with some finely carved gravestone; although nothing in the church grounds has its own listing, with the exception of the churchyard wall itself to the south. There was pleasing warmth to this Ash Wednesday morning and the daffodils were in bloom. A bench set to the west end of the nave looks out to the south; a pleasant place to sit and watch the world go by; enjoying the peace of which there was plenty on that early March morning, with little in the way of traffic using the road going past the church.
A close look at an ornately carved eighteenth century gravestone to the east of the path which leads to the south porch shows a carving of a human skull just above ground level with crossed human bones opposite; each of these being memento mori symbols reminding those looking on that they would go the same way as the deceased; urging the onlooker to live a good Christian life and not be caught lacking when their own time came.
I enjoyed my time here very much; it was time to move on though, heading the short distance to the north east, to Somersham, with this being our last church visited in the Cambridgeshire Fens before heading east, crossing in to Northamptonshire and spending the rest of the afternoon there. Our Ash Wednesday churchcrawl continued.
To complete this look at St John the Baptist at Woodhurst, I enclose a few photographs below from that visit from 2013; when the lighting conditions were beautiful.
