I am in Cambridge. Here for three days. I arrived yesterday after a 'trying' journey from the Infernal City, and I am staying in the serene St Catherine's College King's Parade. I am very close to the chapel and inside, at the moment, a choir is practicing. In less than half an hour the college clock will strike the hour.
This morning earlier, before I had to be at the station to meet a friend, I went to Great St Mary to take some photographs for the blog. Sadly you will have to wait until a day or so for some pictures of the interior as there was some sort of conference going on. This large church is both the civic and University church. Appropriately enough then, it stands at poised between the market and the academic centre of the University. It is built of stone (rubble and ashlar) and some brick. The stone will have come across the Fens from the quarries of the Limestone Belt, such a Barnack and Ketton. It is a Late Gothic basilican plan church with square ended chancel, and side chapels; an ostentatious display of mercantile wealth and piety. A proud building rather like the other great burghal churches of E Anglia and Essex, such as Lavenham and Saffron Walden. No n porch, but on the s side there are the rood loft stairs and a south porch which looks entirely Victorian. The base of the w tower is of the same period as the church but the top storey and battlements are Post-Reformation. It is surrounded by a small graveyard, but, I believe, it was once hemmed in by buildings.
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