St Giles, Castle Street, Cambridge

History of St Giles Cambridge

Sara Payne, Down Your Street, refers to a Saxon church here (1981).

The church was rebuilt 1874-5 by Healey of Bradford but the original church was founded c. 1092 when Sheriff Picot and his wife founded a house of Augustinian canons here; the canons later moved to Barnwell. (Pevsner)

The story, recounted by Florence Keynes in By-ways of Cambridge History, is that Picot’s wife, Lady Hugoline, was so ill that she vowed, were she to recover her health, to build a church in honour of her patron saint, St Giles, as well as a religious community.

Further information can be founded on Wikipedia.

The clock on the west wall of the church used to be located at the clock house which, until 1817, occupied the space between the NE turret and the first northern buttress of King’s College Chapel. It was then removed to the western wall of the old St Giles Church. When that was demolished the clock was put back on the west wall of the new church.

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1902 07 17

Cambridge Paving Committee had approached the vicar and churchwardens of St Giles’ church to ascertain whether it would be possible to acquire a portion of the churchyard for the widening of Castle Street. They would agree provided that the work of excavating and collecting human remains be screened by a hoarding & the bodies reverently re-interred. Chesterton Road corner was a most dangerous one and when the improvement was carried out one corner out of the four would be cut back.

Credit: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge Castle End Scrapbook 1897 to 1990, ref. 1902 07 17.

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