WOODWALTON : CHURCH OF ST ANDREW

Church Post Code PE28 5YP

Contact Friends of Friendless Churches for access details

Redundant : cared for by the Friends of Woodwalton Church and the Friends of Friendless Churches.

The church of St Andrew at Woodwalton stands isolated on high ground, to the north west of the rest of the village; and has been closed for worship since 1967. Isolated and for the most part unused, but definitely not unloved; with the Friends of Woodwalton church and the Friends of Friendless Churches helping to prevent this fine medieval church from being lost!

There was a church mentioned here at the time of the Domesday Survey in 1086, but the earliest surviving parts of the church that we see today date from the 13th century. It closed for worship in 1967, was declared redundant in 1972 and was adopted by the Friends of Friendless Churches in 1979.

It is suspected that the village at one point back in history would have been clustered around the church. Something made the village relocate; possibly an outbreak of plague, with the other, less substantial houses demolished; and the village rebuilt a safe distance away. Possibly other reasons lost in the mists of time!

The remote location helped in the decline of this church, with theft and vandalism leaving the church here in a vulnerable state, with very bad subsidence issues not helping the situation at all. The church was placed on the first Heritage at Risk Register, which was compiled in 1989. It was to stay on this register until the spring of 2023; when the combined efforts of the two organisations mentioned, over many years, saw this church removed from that register. And this was the reason for my visit here on a May evening in 2023; a celebration to mark this achievement, with more than 50 people present.

I have attempted to highlight the beauty of the parish church for the last 16 years. I share a passion for these buildings; the same passion that those who have protected this church have. I have the easy ‘job’ though! I am out with the sun on my back (sometimes) enjoying the churches, finding out about their history; taking a few photographs and then making it available for others to see and enjoy (hopefully).

The people such as those who have helped to save this church are those with the difficult job; and they have my great admiration! They are the ones doing the hard hands on work; they are the ones up to their necks in dust and bat droppings. They are the ones out in the cold and the wet. The situation here reminded me of what Bob Davey did to help save the remote church of St Mary at Houghton on the Hill near Swaffham in Norfolk.

The church there was near derelict, encrusted in ivy, with signs of satanic worship inside, but there was a stubborn refusal to let a precious building die, and it was restored so that future generation might enjoy it!

Isolated., the church of St Andrew may well be, but there are no shortage of people passing by, albeit at speed, with the East Coast mainline passing just to the west of the church. The Friends of Friendless Churches website estimates that more than 15 million people pass by on the train each year; and for those who are not glued to their laptop of phone, it is a familiar landmark.

The village of Woodwalton itself has a long history, with a Roman coin hoard being found here in Victorian times. There was a castle in the parish, which is thought to have dated to the 11th to 12th centuries; just earthworks remaining today. There was a church mentioned here at the time of the Domesday Survey in 1086, which is liable to have been a basic structure of nave and chancel, with nothing remaining of this original structure.

Huntingdon is six miles or so off to the south, with Peterborough some 15 miles or so off to the north. The A1 runs to the west with the main railway line to London a short distance away in the same direction. The neighbouring village across the field to the north is Connington; another redundant church.

In the 1980's the church of St Andrew was used as a film set, an episode of Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense entitled "And the Wall Came Tumbling Down" being filmed here; with the male lead played by Gareth Hunt.

I have pain a few visits here over the years, with one of these back in the summer of 2014 seeing the church open so that people could see how the building work was progressing; a service taking place on that day as well. Fond memories of a visit here with David on a stormy late summer day in 2011, with the sky a furious and intimidating black over the church; watching as a funnel cloud formed in the west.

On another Sunday afternoon out with David; we photographed Woodwalton church from high ground as we headed towards Abbots Ripton. With the zoom on we could clearly pick out Peterborough cathedral in the distance, along with the floodlights from Peterborough United; roughly 15 miles away as the crow flies.

The structure that we see today consists of west tower, nave with north and south aisles and clerestories, south porch and chancel.

Looking at the exterior from the south, the square west tower dates from the 14th century; buttressed and battlemented; and plain with the exception of two light windows on each side at the belfry stage. The bricked up door at the west end of the tower harks back to the days when procession was a big part of the worship. There is a stair turret to the north east corner of the tower.

The Revd Owen, who was also the Vicar of Woodwalton, looked at the church bells here in his study of the church bells in Huntingdonshire, which was published in 1899. There were four bells in the ring at that time, with the situation being the same today.

Owen noted that the first and the fourth of the ring were cast by Joseph Eayre of St Neots in 1764. Each bell has the name Wm Mackness, the church warden of the day and Hugh Palmer the minister inscribed on to them. The second and third of the ring are dated 1841, and are plain. Owen attributes them to Mears of London, albeit with a question mark. The National Church Bell Database has not attributed them to any founder.

Owen remarks that two hand bells were stolen from the church here in 1549 and also passes on that there is no record of who cast the bells that were recast in 1841; although it may seem logical that at one point there could have been a ring of four, all cast by Eayre.

The porch is thought to have been built with some stones from nearby Sawtry Abbey, which stood just over a mile away, and which was demolished on the orders of Henry VIII after 1536. An empty niche can be seen over the porch doorway, this would originally have had an effigy of St Andrew in it.

The roofs of the clerestory and chancel are steeply pitched and the remains of an arch, along with different infilled stonework, indicate that there was a structure here previously, which the church guide attributes to a demolished organ chamber.

Stone heads look out from the nave; with one having a bald head with beard. I did wonder if this might have been a representation of Paul, but I suspect that it might simply be a generic depiction of a bald man with a beard as none of the other heads were recognisable

In several places the church shows that it has had a hard life, with some patching up during Victorian restoration in 1856 – 59 and some more recent repairs.

Moving inside, there was a healthy number of people inside and a pleasant buzz of conversation as we waited for the service to start. It was good to have a good look around after the service had completed; but the photographs are a little darker than I would have liked as it was quite late in the day.. A gentle squeaking from the west throughout the service I daresay was bats; a more raucous squawking at times, especially when a train passed, was something unidentified but far larger!

There are four bay arcades to north and south. The south aisle is by far the elder, dating back to around 1250; having circular piers with octagonal capitals.

The north aisle dates to the 16th century, with the piers here being decorated with what might be coats of arms.

The upper part of a rood screen extends across the chancel arch; with this just containing a cross, without figures. Inscribed are the words ‘Te Deum Laudamus’ which translates as ‘Thee O God We Praise’.

The chance was rebuilt around 1330 and shows the hand of the 1850’s restorers, with the floor and wall tiles all dating from this period. All three walls are tiled and this may have lost a little of the history of the church as any evidence of sedilia, the seating for the priests, and piscina, in which the holy vessels would be washed, would have been covered over.

The reredos takes the form of panels depicting the four evangelists, created in mosaic form; with similar to be seen at Barnack. The reredos here is incomplete though, with Matthew and Mark still in place but Luke and John missing. On either side there are commandment boards in the Old King James script. The altar was set out for service with white and gold altar cloth, which has the St Andrew cross on it.

The three light east window has a few small medieval stained glass fragments. At one time there were stained glass depictions of St Andrew with saltire cross, St James with staff and scallop shell and Mary of Bethany with jar of nard. In the most westerly window of the north chancel wall, there were medieval depiction of St Catherine and St Lawrence, each of whom carried symbols of their martyrdom; a wheel and grid iron respectively; these two are now in the safe hands of the Stained Glass Museum in Ely Cathedral.

At the west end of the nave are some wall mounted coffin lids. The official listing dates these to the 12th century, which pre dates the present structure. It is worth remembering though that there was a church here at the end of the 11th century. Perhaps we see a relic of that early church; or as the church guide suggests, these might have come from nearby Sawtry Abbey.

The font is relatively modern, possibly dating from the time of the Victorian restoration. It is said that the ancient font that was previously here was broken in two and buried in the north east corner of the churchyard.

At the end of the service there was time to look around; this being one of the few times that I ignored the refreshments, preferring to shoot off a few photographs as the light was fading. Casting my mind back, there has obviously been a lot of work done since the visit in 2014; and the future of this lovely church looks a lot brighter due to the love shown to it by a number of people.

Moving back outside, to be fair tittle of any major interest in the well maintained church grounds, but there are graves in the churchyard for labourers who were killed whilst working on the nearby railroad, which opened in 1850. One more ancient gravestone is worth noting though. Looking to date from the early to mid 18th century, this grave has two shrouded human figures carved on to it, one of which, if you look very carefully, is standing on a very weathered human skull.

The skull was an often used symbol for the mortality of Man and sometimes a human figure is depicted standing on, pressing down upon or leaning against the skull. This appeared to be a way of saying to the onlooker that death has been beaten; the deceased has run the race and was at peace with God at their death. Now, onlooker, go and do likewise!

All photographs on this page are from the May 2023 visit, with the exception of an exterior shot with black sky and the long range shot with train which were taken on another visit. If you would like to visit the website for the Friends of Friendless Churches, please clock on the photograph of the gravestone above left. If you would like to be taken to the Friends of Woodwalton Church website, please click on the photograph of the box tomb above right. Each page will open in another window.