~ Home Page ~
 

St. Peter's Church, Snailwell
For photos click here

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ST PETER'S CHURCH, SNAILWELL

There has been a settlement at Snailwell since pre-historic times. The evidence for this is witnessed in the ten Bronze Age bowl barrows which were discovered in the parish on the site of an airfield used during the Second World War. Sometime later, during the building of the houses on the Roman Way, a burial site dating from the middle part of the First Century A.D. was discovered. This contained artefacts of a local Belgic Chief.

St Peter's Church in the parish of Snailwell is also ancient. The present church dates from 1070 A.D. and the rare flint constructed round tower survives from this period. There are only two flint round tower churches in Cambridgeshire, the other to be found in the parish of Bartlow. In addition to the round tower of St Peter's, there are traces of the Norman nave and roof still clearly visible at the west end of the church. The chancel and south aisle were added to the church in 1220. From this period, the lancet windows are still visible. The nave was enlarged in 1320 when the north aisle and the original vestry were built. A door leading into the north aisle can still be seen outside the church. The present stone font and canopied tomb by the high altar date from this period. A rood screen with loft and staircase on the south side are sadly no longer visible.

Further structural changes took place to St Peter's in 1480 when the clerestory and beautiful hammerbeam oak roof were added. The roof incorporated unusual carvings of bishops and priests. The tower was capped with a slender timber spire and three bells were hung. The present door was made in the church. Screened chantry chapels were added in the north and south aisles. The chantry chapel in the south aisle remains as a war memorial. Carved oak benches were also installed and some of these can still be seen in the south aisle. The extension to the south aisle by some six feet eastwards undertaken at this time to form a family vault with a chapel sadly necessitated the removal of the south abutment of the chancel arch. This caused structural problems in later centuries.

The political turmoil of 1649 witnessed the soldiers of Oliver Cromwell's 'New Model Army' destroying the three altars and the statues on the high altar. Cromwell's troops also wrecked the screens and smashed the stained glass windows in addition to breaking the porch stoup. These soldiers also pillaged the sacramental plate and the monumental brasses. Finally, they stripped the lead from the roof to make bullets. Some fragments of the early glass are to be found in the porch windows.

In 1700 restoration work was undertaken to the church to correct the damage caused by Cromwell's troops. Unfortunately this work was not competently undertaken. The chancel walls, badly out of upright, were supported by four ugly new buttresses. The east and south east windows of the chancel which had fallen out were roughly replaced with brick and plaster. The chancel and north aisle were re-roofed in slate. Deal pews and a three deck pulpit were installed. One of the bells, which had been damaged and suffered cracking, was sold for scrap and not replaced. St Peter's Church fell into decay for the next 150 years.

During this period of neglect, overhanging trees encouraged the damp and the roof leaked enabling the timbers to rot. The chancel arch and the clerestory leaned so far out of vertical that they were in danger of collapse along with the south aisle and the porch. The level of the churchyard rose above the window sills and the windows let in the weather, birds and bats. The pews and the floors were rotten and overgrown with moss and fungus. Only a few came to worship here. Who could blame others in the parish for staying away?

In 1878 there was a complete restoration of St Peter's Church and much of what you see today dates from this period of work. The overhanging trees were removed and the level of the churchyard lowered. The south aisle and the porch were rebuilt on the original foundation of 1220. The chancel walls were made upright and buttressed whilst the chancel was rebuilt. The present east window was added and the church was re-roofed. A new reredos with four paintings on slate depicting incidents in the life of St Peter was erected in the sanctuary and a new altar was installed. The credence and piscina were restored together with the sanctuary steps. A new stone pulpit was added and the windows gained new stained glass. Later in the nineteenth century a new chancel screen was erected and the north aisle screen was restored. The vestry was also rebuilt.

St Peter's has stood unaltered since 1878, apart from the installation of electricity and a heating system. The state of the building remains sound but restoration work is always necessary given the great age of the church. In 1979, the two surviving bells inside the tower and the calling bell in the tower parapet were all rehung on dead headstocks in the medieval bellframe for chiming only. In 1984, after a great effort by the parishioners of Snailwell and with help from grants outside of the parish, the flintwork on the tower was repointed. In addition the tower gullies, drainage shutes and part of the stone parapet were replaced. In 1986, main beams in the north east corner of the nave roof were repaired. The work on the church goes on to this day.

"People without history is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern of timeless moments. So, while the light fails on a winter's afternoon, in a secluded chapel History is now and England" (T. S. Eliot)