History
St Mary’s church is located just off the Market Square in Whittlesey. The impressive tall spire can be seen across the Fens and is a well-known landmark which leads to the church being called “high” by the locals. The first church on this site was consecrated in 1128 but it was ravaged by fire and was rebuilt over the next 250 years. The west window depicts three local Saints, Guthlac, Hermit of Crowland, Audrey/Etheldreda, founder of a monastery at Ely and Edmund, King and Martyr enshrined at Bury St Edmunds. The church also houses a memorial to Sir Harry Smith, the Hero of Aliwal, who served in the Peninsular War under the Duke of Wellington.
Exterior
The base of the tower is decorated with niches, blind panelling and small buttresses with spires on the top, with the west door being surrounded by a particular sumptuous projecting ogee arch. Above that, there is a big west window, and even more surface decoration. The corners are clasp-buttressed at the base, then cross-buttressed at the first stage, clasp-buttressed again at the second stage and given diagonal buttresses around the bell-chamber.
From these corners rise four pinnacles, with slender flying buttresses supporting a beautiful crocketted spire. There is also a stair turret tucked away on the northern side of the east face. It rises to roughly half the height of the parapet, and is itself richly decorated: it is octagonal, with the faces covered in blind panelling and the top capped with a little Tudor turret.
Interior
The oldest nave arcades, those on the north side, date from the mid 13th century, having been built after a fire in 1244 along with the north aisle and the western half of the chancel.
Then, in the 14th century, the nave was extended one bay to the west: the new work is slightly different in style to the old, and the join is a bit awkward, with the pier containing quite a bit of wall preserved between the responds. At the same time, the south aisle was built: an unusually wide space, with two decent sized west windows side by side. Finally, at the time of the construction of the tower, the chancel was lengthened somewhat to the east.
As might be expected, the best bit of the interior is the tower. The arch is extremely lofty, and decorated with niches and panelling on the responds. The space within is open up to the bell-stage, and is surmounted by an elegant tierceron vault with a large circular trapdoor in the middle.
About this cache
Please make an educated decision about the level of muggle activity when you arrive at GZ, and if you find it's just too muggly, we'd suggest you return another time - we'd rather you protected the cache. Thank you.
Free parking is available at the waypoint provided, a couple of minutes walk away. Please park considerately, safely, and legally.
Expanding this series
For full information on how you can expand the Church Micro series by sadexploration please read the Place your own Church Micro page before you contact him at churchmicro@gmail.co.uk.
See also the Church Micro Statistics and Home pages for further information about the series.