DODDINGTON : CHURCH OF ST MARY THE VIRGIN
Church Post Code PE15 0SP
Open for Cambridgeshire Historic Churches Tour Afternoon
It was the Cambridgeshire Historic Churches tour afternoon, August 2019; a day of contrasting weather with glorious sunshine and threatening clouds alternating throughout the afternoon. We were in the Cambridgeshire Fens, having started off the day at Westry, before moving on to St Wendreda at March before ending up at the church of St Mary at Doddington.
At one point the parish of Doddington was the largest in England. This changed though with the Doddington Rectory Division Act of 1856, which saw this very large parish split in to several smaller parishes namely Benwick, with a church built there in 1854 with this being declared redundant and demolished in 1983 and Wimblington, with a church built there by TH Wyatt in 1874. March itself was split in to four, including Westry which is a suburb to the north east. St Wendreda covered the old part of the town with new churches built at the parish of March St John and St Mary (Westry) in the mid 1870’s with March St Peter following in 1880, with each of these also built by Wyatt.
Doddington is around 20 miles to the south east of Peterborough, half way between March to the north and Chatteris to the south; with these being the furthest churches to the south and south east of Peterborough covered by my sites.
Doddington is a large village which recorded a population of over 4200 at the time of the 2021 census. There was no mention of a church or a priest here at the time of the Domesday Survey in 1086. This was a place of some importance, with the Bishops of Ely having a palace there until 1600. Nothing remains of the Bishops Palace today. In more recent times Paralympic sprinter Jonnie Peacock, who won Paralympic gold at the 100m sprint in London in 2012 had a post box painted gold in the village; this being where his mother and step father live. Fond memories of an afternoon out with David looking for this soon after it was painted.
The church of St Mary sits in the centre of the village. A large group of church enthusiasts had gathered; with several glancing up at the threatening clouds. The sun came out providing some excellent lighting conditions whilst a few miles away to the west towards Peterborough there was torrential rain.
The church that we see today consists of west tower with spire, nave with north and south aisles and clerestories, south porch and chancel. The oldest parts of the structure that we see today are the chancel and the easternmost parts of the aisles, which each date to the mid 13th century. Much of the church dates to the 14th century with the west tower and spire built at that time with the aisles lengthened to the west, level with the west wall of the tower, during the late 14th century. The chancel was restored and the south porch was added during the 15th century, with the church having the usual Victorian restoration.
The square tower is heavily buttressed, with plain parapet at the top. A recessed octagonal broach spire rises up with a single lucarne window. The church clock faces out from the north and west faces; proclaiming with misplaced confidence that it was 6.40.
This is a church of pleasing proportions which was bathed in glorious sunshine. The south porch is buttressed, battlemented and pinnacle with a small empty image niche over the door, which would have held a statue prior to the Reformation. A chimney stack forms a triangle with the two pinnacles.
The clerestory consists of four two light windows; grotesque creatures look out from the 13th century gabled priests door to the north of the chancel; the figure to the left is monkey like with its neighbour to the right being of uncertain origin, turning its head slightly to look at those approaching from the west with a sinister bulging chameleon like eye.
Other carvings are dotted around with several of these being human in nature; with one male figure has long flowing hair and beard, while a female figure close by has lost her nose. A further female figure wears a headdress, but is badly weathered with eyes worn away to nothing and a generous coating of white lichen on her head.
Today there are six bells in the ring here. However, when Rev John Raven compiled his study of the church bells in Cambridgeshire, which was published in 1869, there was a ring of five here with each of the five cast by Thomas Gardiner of Sudbury, Suffolk in 1736. The second of the ring had inscribed on it the name John Howard, who was the church warden of the day. One bell was added by Alfred Bowell of Ipswich just before the start of the Second World War, with one of Gardiner’s bells being recast at the same time.
The visitor enters in through a north door, which has a screen containing stained glass that was saved from Benwick church when it was demolished in the early 1980’s. This has the four evangelists, including a fine depiction of St John, who holds a chalice, out of which rises a serpent. Christian tradition states that John was given poisoned wine while at Ephesus. He prayed over the wine and the poison came out in the form of a serpent.
There are four bay arcades to north and south, with octagonal piers and moulded capitals. Nave is separated from chancel by a restored 15th century chancel screen. The chancel is long and uncluttered, with oak panelling on three sides. The priest’s door to the north wall is curtained off and there is a restored piscina in its traditional position against the south wall. The sedilia which would have sat alongside it to the west is gone, lost during a period of restoration.
The altar cloth was green, this being the colour used by the Church Of England, for what they call ‘Ordinary Time’, that is the times between the major Christian festivals. This colour would be used until the start of Advent.
There is much stained glass here of very high quality. The east window is of four lights and has, from left to right as we look at it, the nativity, the crucifixion, with Christ’s body on the cross surrounded by a blazing aureole. We then have the ascension and then Jesus teaching in the temple as a 12 year old; Joseph and Mary in the top of the depiction entering the temple to find him teaching.
One three light window shows two of the three occasions that Jesus was recorded raising someone from the dead. To the left we see Jesus raising Jairus’ daughter to the right we have Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead; with Lazarus in his shroud and his sisters Martha and Mary alongside Jesus. In between the two we see the stoning of Stephen, the first Christian martyr.
One further two light window shows two of Jesus’ miracles. He heals the lame at the pool of Bethesda; telling the man to pick up his mat and walk, and doing it on the Sabbath, thereby incurring the anger of the Pharisees. Alongside we see Jesus bringing sight to the blind, touching the eyes of a man who carries a white stick.
One fabulous two light window is in shades of grey but with highlights picked out in gold. One panel shows a scene from the Last Supper with Mary of Bethany anointing Jesus’ feet with pure nard. Jesus is depicted with nimbus (halo) but no one else has nimbus. This led to an interesting chat as to how Judas Iscariot is portrayed in stained glass of the Last Supper. Almost always he is shown with no nimbus, and normally looks away from Jesus, sometimes looking directly at the onlooker; often holding on to his bag of money. Occasionally I have seen him portrayed with a black nimbus. Here Judas is not shown at all; leaving Jesus for the last time after criticising the wasteful nature of what Mary of Bethany had done!
The other panel shows Jesus teaching at Capernaum, as four friends lower their paralysed friend down on a mat through a hole in the roof.
At the east end of the north aisle there is a three light window that was designed by William Morris. Central is the crucifixion, with Mary the mother of Jesus and John standing alongside the cross; with the crucified Christ in front of symbolically blood red sky ‘Ecce Agnus Dei’ behold the Lamb of God is written below. This central scene is flanked by St Peter who carries the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven and St Paul.
Of the other glass here there is one three light window which simply shows three couples embracing. We see Mary greeting Elizabeth, the prodigal son returning to his father and what I think is Boaz with Ruth; with the latter holding a stalk of wheat.
Close by we see faith and hope and charity, with charity (with some modern translation of the Bible replacing the word charity with love). Faith is shown holding and Bible whilst hope is depicted with an anchor. Charity is shown with a child, who she is feeding with a loaf out of a basket. Charity/Love is always shown as central, in the most important spot, with 1 Corinthians Chapter 13 verse 13 reading in the King James translation ‘And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity’.
Whilst doing some research for this page I saw an interesting newspaper report online from the Cambridgeshire Times from April 1936; which concerned the then Vicar of Doddington, Rev Richard Ridge who found some stained glass in a box which he purchased for £4. This was later sold at auction for £2,075 and the newspaper report went on to say that there was conjecture about whether this was the west window of Kings College Cambridge which had been missing since the Reformation.
There is plenty of interest in the church grounds, with a collection of early 18th to mid 19th century stones being grouped together with a Grade II Listing. Many of these stones are very weathered but there is some fine quality work here.
One finely carved gravestone features Old Father Time, who is used here as a symbol of the mortality of Man. Very weathered, and almost lost under a coating of lichen of varied colours, he reclines against an urn, in which is a human skull and other assorted bones. These are also symbols of mortality, as is the hourglass on the other side; ‘Tempus Fugit’ time flies. Alongside the urn is a crown, which is a symbol of victory; with the victory here being over death. This stone acknowledges the transitory nature of life, and the inevitability of death but shows the victory at the end of life for those who live a good Christian life, who trust in God and who will not be caught lacking on the final day. This can be seen as to a testament as to the faith of the deceased.
A similar stone replaces Old Father Time with an angel, who is lifting the lid on the urn, which again is filled with bones and a skull. The angel holds a trumpet, which was an often used symbol of the resurrection; again a testament as to the faith of the deceased and a message to those looking on; to live in faith as did the deceased.
One stone which is listed has the following epitaph, which sums this up. It is for a lady called Mary, surname illegible, who died it 1771. It Reads ‘All you that stop to read this stone, consider how soon she was gone, death doth not always warning give, therefore be careful how you live'.
A further stone has the suns rays shining down, possibly symbolising the Holy Spirit, with the crown of victory inflight caught within the rays; with angels in flight below, these symbolising the safe escorting of the soul towards Heaven.
To the north west of the church grounds is a churchyard cross, with the base medieval with 19th century restored shaft, which has a Grade II Listing.
It had been a good afternoon’s churchcrawl and as always the tour was well arranged and there was an interesting talk at each of the churches. As usual the afternoon ended with refreshments and a short service and we all trained off home happy at the end. Time well spent. I think that the church here at Doddington is normally closed to visitors and afternoons such as these are very useful in helping to gain access.