Jenyns memorial Bottisham

Holy Trinity, Bottisham

History of Holy Trinity, Bottisham

Listed Building

Parish church. The early C13 chancel, West tower and West porch survive from an earlier church on the site but in the early C14 the nave and aisles were rebuilt. The exterior of the church, including the tracery was extensively repaired and restored in C19 and C20.

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Holy Trinity Church is one of the architectural masterpieces of Cambridgeshire and ranks among the finest Decorated Gothic parish churches in East Anglia. Built largely in the early fourteenth century through the patronage of Sir Elias de Beckingham, a distinguished royal judge, the church reflects the wealth and ambition of a prosperous Fen-edge community whose fortunes were built on trade and agriculture. Its graceful proportions, elegant stonework and richly decorated interior have long been admired by architectural historians.

Visitors enter through an impressive Ely-style galilee porch before stepping into a spacious nave of exceptional harmony. The lofty arcades, finely moulded arches and abundant Decorated tracery create an atmosphere of light and elegance, while the earlier Early Gothic chancel provides a subtle contrast in style. Throughout the building, the quality of medieval craftsmanship is immediately apparent.

Among the church’s greatest treasures is its late fifteenth-century stone rood screen, one of the finest in the county. Behind the former side altars stand impressive post-Reformation monuments, including the touching memorial to Lionel and Dorothy Allington, whose two children are depicted beneath a canopied monument, and the later monument to Sir Roger Jenyns and his wife, an unusually affectionate portrayal of a married couple holding hands.

Holy Trinity also contains a number of fascinating architectural curiosities. A small chapel dedicated to St Nicholas was created in the twentieth century using seventeenth-century carved woodwork salvaged from the former rectory, demonstrating the continuing care taken to preserve the church’s heritage. The church’s stained glass, medieval piscina and sedilia, together with later Victorian restoration, complement rather than overshadow its medieval character.

Today Holy Trinity remains one of Cambridgeshire’s outstanding parish churches, celebrated for the beauty of its Decorated architecture, its remarkable monuments and the sense of continuity that links more than seven centuries of worship and village life.

Reference: based on the description of Bottisham in Simon Jenkins, England’s Thousand Best Churches, with additional architectural and historical context.

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Hugh Rogers’s guide to the church says that there had been an early Norman church at this site; stones of this period can be seen in the tower and parts of the churchyard wall. A C12th coffin lid forms part of a stile in the churchyard wall.

In 1291 ‘Valuation of the churches of the Ely diocese’ shows that Bottisham had the highest assessment, or taxatio, of all the parishes in the Camps Deanery.

After the Dissolution, the living was given to the control of Trinity College.

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The two storey extension to the west of the tower dates from the early C13th. It is a galilee, probably derived from ‘galeria’ or porch. Its first floor could have been used as a residence or as the meeting [place for a guild. There were several guilds in Bottisham in the C14th, one was that of the ‘Holy Trinity’.

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There is  a monument to Sir Roger and Lady Jenyns from 1740 as well as others: the Pledger tomb (1599), and the Allington children (1638).

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This is the tomb slab of Elias de Bekingham. It is classed as a ‘Camoys Style prototype’ and dates from 1305 when brasses were becoming fashionable among professional classes. Elias was one of the judges of Edward I; he lived at Bendyshe Hal, Bottisham. He must have been a significant benefactor to the rebuilding of the nave at that time.

The relief that was originally fixed above the entrance to the school.

This monument represents the life size figures of Sir Roger Jenyns and his second wife Elizabeth, seated on rolled mats. They are in their night attire; this was not always considered very proper! Sir Roger was the first of the Jenyns family to own Bottisham Hall. He was responsible for the building of a school in 1730 a short distance from the church.