Church of St Peter and St Paul

Description

Historic England state: "Parish church. Mid C13 and C14. Restored 1858 and 1885-8. Carstone and rubble and fieldstone with clunch and limestone dressings. Slate and tiled roofs. West tower, nave and north and south aisles, north porch and chancel. West tower, C14-C15. Four stages with four stage diagonal buttressing with cusping to gables of two upper stages. Embattled parapet with main cornice having grotesque gargoyles to the corners. Newel staircase in south west corner. West doorway in two centred, continuous moulded arch in square head with restored dagger tracery to the spandrels and return label. West window of three cinquefoil lights in two centred continuous moulded arch with vertical tracery to the head. Bell stage has on each side an opening of two cinquefoil lights in two centred hollow moulded arch with label. Nave, C13, and clerestory added C14-C15. Four windows to each side with repaired lintels and tiled reveals. There is a blocked parapet to the roof. The C14-C15 roof has been rebuilt, probably C19, but the gable end remains at east end. South aisle has a C13 lancet window in the west end and two restored windows of C14-C15 to the south wall. The south doorway of clunch is probably C13. It has a two centred arch of two chamfered orders. The chancel has two windows in the south wall. One of C13, restored, has two uncusped lights with quatrefoil and the other is C14 of two cinquefoil lights with quatrefoil and vertical tracery in the head. The east window was restored c.1885 and is of three graduated lancets. C14-C15 North doorway of four centred arch in square head with continuous moulding and dagger tracery. Interior: C15 west tower arch. Two centred and of two orders to east and west faces. Ogee and roll moulding on responds with similar mouldings. Nave-arcade, C13, restored, of four bays. Two centred arches of two chamfered orders on octagonal columns with moulded capitals and bases. Screen, C15 but much restored. Six bays and two stages. Ogee head and double cusping to side bays, with crocketting to upper stage and the lower stage with central mullion and tracery in the head. Piscina in south wall of chancel. Two bays each with trefoil cusping to two centred arches on columns. Foiled drain. Chest, C16. Oak with original iron furniture. Font C13. Limestone. Octagonal bowl on clunch stem."

A priest of 'Grantandene' is first recorded c. 1183, witnessing a grant of land in Gamlingay. The church was in the 13th century, as it has remained, a rectory, in the patronage of the bishop of Ely. In 1401 Little Gransden, like the bishop's other demesne manors in Cambridgeshire, was, under the compromise settling the disputes between the bishop and the archdeacon of Ely, removed completely from the archdeacon's jurisdiction and placed directly under the bishop as ordinary. The exemption endured in law until annulled by an Order in Council in 1899, which however, was not acted upon for several years. When Elizabeth I annexed the manor in 1600 the advowson was still reserved to the bishop, and remained in his sole hands until 1928, when the living was united with the vicarage of Great Gransden, whose patrons, Clare College, received two turns to present, the bishop taking the third. Simultaneously the parish, so united, was transferred from Bourn rural deanery to that of St. Neots in the archdeaconry of Huntingdon.

The rector always kept possession of the tithes and other profits of the church and had besides a substantial endowment of glebe land. His income in 1217 and 1254 was assessed at £13 6s. 8d., and in 1291 at £18. Only £6 13s. 4d. was supposed in 1341 to come from the great tithes, the glebe making up the difference. In 1535 the yearly value of the rectory was £18 15s. 2d., which made it the wealthiest benefice in Bourn deanery, and one of the ten richest in the county. It maintained its position through the subsequent price rise, yielding £125 a year in 1650, though only £110 c. 1730. About 1775 its income was estimated at almost £200. The tithes began to be converted into moduses in the late 17th century. The small tithes of Lodge farm, then mainly pasture, were commuted for £3 5s. under an agreement of 1681. The tithes were wholly extinguished in exchange for land at enclosure in 1814. The large farm so created brought in £201 to the rector c. 1830, but with the agricultural depression its yield fell sharply to a nominal £150 in 1892, and less when the farm was unlet. In 1897 the living was said to be of no value. In 1896 the outgoings, in taxes, rates, and repairs, exceeded the £84 rent from the glebe by £11.

By 1300 the living was wealthy enough to attract prominent officials of church or state as incumbents. In 1310 the 'ill-famed' royal clerk, Walter Maidstone, obtained it by papal provision to add to the ten benefices he held already. When made bishop of Worcester in 1313, he had it transferred to his kinsman Walter Kirkeby, already a pluralist when aged fourteen, who by 1327 had been succeeded by a canon of Salisbury. Later the rectory was used as a stepping-stone by chopchurches. Between 1378 and 1398 it saw eight transient rectors, only one of whom died before he had exchanged it for another, usually richer, benefice. Among them were several clerks serving Bishop Thomas Arundel, the patron, such as Simon Romayn, his cross-bearer, and Thomas of Barnard Castle, his registrar (later master of Peterhouse 1400-24). The latter held Gransden for only 12 days, as one of four churches held in succession in as many months. Those rectors not absent on official duties departed to attend the university of Cambridge. About 1390 two successive rectors obtained long leave of absence to study, one within two months of being cited by the bishop for nonresidence. When John Thwaites, S.T.B., was presented in 1460, he at once solicited an investigation into the dilapidations of his church and within a month was licensed to lease it for three years and return to his studies. The duties of the living were probably thrown upon the parish chaplains, of whom there were two in 1379 and one in 1406. Curates are recorded in 1487 and 1543-4. Under Henry VIII it was they who usually witnessed the parishioners' wills. Edward Leeds (rector 1548-53), who as vicargeneral to Bishop Goodrich had been zealous in demolishing superstitious objects, resigned his cure on Mary's accession. From that period Little Gransden rectory was almost invariably held by graduates of Cambridge. Under Elizabeth I it was used to support heads of Cambridge colleges, being held by Robert Norgate, master of Corpus Christi (rector 1584–7), and John Robinson, late president of St. John's (rector 1587-97). Their successors probably resided on the cure. The learned and devout Andrew Willett (rector 1597-8) sufficiently won his flock's liking to be chosen later to represent them on the commissions inquiring into the demesne in 1606-10 and abetted their delaying tactics. His successor William Knight organized their defence in the lawsuit over those lands.

The Civil War produced greater disturbance. By 1638, in obedience to Bishop Wren, the communion table had been mounted on steps at the east end and railed round. In 1644 William Dowsing came to level the steps and destroy the surviving carved angels and superstitious pictures. The benefice was contested. When it fell vacant in 1643, Wren, then in prison, instituted John Tolly, fellow of Peterhouse, presented by his father, John Tolly, butcher, of London to whom Wren had in 1642 granted the next two presentations. The younger Tolly was an ardent royalist, who filled his college rooms with ornaments considered to be popish, and therefore lost his fellowship. So the parliamentarians installed Thomas Perry instead. In 1650 Wren named the voluminous royalist poet and divine, Joseph Beaumont, to succeed Tolly and on Beaumont's resignation in 1663 replaced him with Gibson Lucas. The benefice, however, remained in the possession of Thomas Jessop, who was minister there by 1650, and secured presentation to it from the Protector in 1654. Jessop anticipated the Restoration receiving priest's orders from a wandering Irish bishop in 1659, and held on through every revolution until his death in 1700.

The 18th century rectors showed a steady decline in pastoral diligence. James Musgrave, rector 1714-47, although he inherited land in County Durham, usually resided in his parish. Henry Burrough, rector 1747-73, was domestic chaplain to Bishop Butts, and was given Wisbech and Little Gransden (worth together £600 a year) to hold in plurality, so that he could marry the bishop's youngest daughter. John Hepworth, rector 1774-1802, lived in his other parish of Grafham (Hunts.), leaving his duties to a curate to whom he paid £25 a year. Thomas Briggs resided only occasionally and paid the vicar of Waresley to act as curate for £50 a year. Whereas Musgrave had held services twice each Sunday and once on holy days, in 1807 only one Sunday service was said; and the attendance at the four annual communions fell from 30 in 1727 to 5 or 6 in 1825, who were always the same persons. The 1830s brought an improvement. Frederick Norris, rector 1831-56, resided, as did his successors, held two services and preached every Sunday, and by 1836 had raised the number of communicants to 15 or 20. In 1851 the average congregation was still only 30. By 1881 the church had recovered all but some 40 of the population from dissent, and over 20 people attended the fortnightly communion. In 1896-7 there were 43 registered communicants and about 115 churchpeople, though the church contained only 50 sittings of which 20 were free.

The church of St Peter and Paul has a chancel with annexe, aisled nave with north porch, and west tower, built in carstone rubble with freestone dressings. Fragments of Romanesque carving in the south wall may come from an earlier church, but the core of the existing building was put up in the 13th century, when it included the chancel, nave, aisles, and a south porch. In the 14th century there were alterations in the chancel, including an additional window in the east wall and a new window in the south wall. They probably preceded the reconsecration of the high altar in 1352. Later in that century the tower and spire were added. The clerestory was refenestrated, the north aisle rebuilt, and the south aisle heightened and buttressed in the later 15th century, and the rood-screen is an addition of about the same date. There is no indication of any new work in the chancel and in 1550 it was said to be near collapse. By the 1580s it had been sufficiently repaired for the school to be held there. The church was in good repair in 1727, but it suffered further dilapidations in the 18th century. In 1783 it was darkened by windows boarded over for lack of glazing, the plastered walls needed whitewashing, and the pews and seats repair. The sum of £600 was spent on repairs between 1840 and 1850, and the church was restored in 1858, and again in 1885-8 by J. P. St. Aubyn. The old south porch was replaced by a north porch c. 1900, and an organ chamber added to the north aisle. The 15th century rood-screen, with ogee tracery, was repainted and embellished with statues of angels in 1908. The pulpit is Jacobean, possibly of 1626. The church plate includes a chalice and paten of 1582, and a paten of 1724. There were three bells in 1552 and in 1841, when only one was fit for use. Of the three bells in 1968, one was possibly pre-Reformation, having a black-letter invocation of St. Nicholas. The other two were 17th century, one being dated 1616. The parish registers begin only in 1730, but the bishop's transcripts survive from 1599, with a gap from 1600 to 1605. In 1522 John Ellis bequeathed £10 for buying land, the rent to be used in four-year cycles on repairing the highways (for two years), on paying the fifteenth and 'king's wages' (probably for troops), and for the good of the church and village. He also left a stock of malt and barley for lending to the poor at Christmas. Thirteen acres bought at Caxton were still in 1952 held by the churchwardens, except for 1½ a. sold in 1934. The rent was £12 in 1831 but only £3 in 1952. The churchwardens also held in 1783 small plots in Great Gransden and Waresley and in 1952 certain allotments in Little Gransden. The total income from these properties in 1952 was £7 6s. 6d. spent on church purposes. A list of all the rectors dating from 1267 may be seen in the north aisle. The churchyard cross was separately listed on 3rd September 1986. Latterly the church tower has required work for which donations have been sought and the work commenced in 2011. Glebe Paddock, adjacent to the churchyard, was approved as a burial ground in 2001.

At the Episcopal Visitation of the Archdeaconry of Ely on 24 September 1685 it was noted that:

'Sr. Rt. Cotton Ld. of the Mannor.

The Church wants paving, boarding.

The Font nasty and wants a Plugg.

Noe Patin, Hood, Homilies, Cannons or Table of Degrees, he gives the Bread upon a Napkin.

The Chancell Windows stopt up.

The Chancell wants paving, whiting.

Severall Cracks in the Chancell to be mended.

Communions but twice a year none at Whitsontide.

The Church-Yard not at all fenced. None unbaptized.

The House very firm and good, the Outhouses well.

Noe Gent.

£4 per annum to ye poor and Church.'

The clock was added in 1901 and supplied by John Smith & Sons, Malland Clock Works, Derby.

Listing

Grade II*. Listing number: 1317971. Listed on 22 November 1967.

The Church Yard Cross is separately listed.

Grade II. Listing number: 1330934. Listed on 3 September 1986.