Pelican in her Piety with Instruments of the Passion (Leonard Evetts, 1958)
St Andrew, Orwell, Cambridgeshire
I cycled north from the large, merging commuter villages of Melbourn and Meldreth. Now, for the first time today I was moving away from the busy A10 and the Cambridge to Kings Cross railway line into Cambridgeshire's borderlands with Bedfordshire. In the far distance I could see the village of Orwell nestling against the south side of the same chalk ridge as Barrington, only further west, and the ridge here is higher. It makes a lovely backdrop for the church which I could see from miles off across the flat plain. The road was hedgeless and empty, and this was the one place all day I felt the west wind strongly. A marker beside the road reminded me that the long straight into the village runs along the Greenwich Meridian, at which I couldn't resist weaving back and forth across the road chanting 'now I'm in the western hemisphere!" and "now I'm in the eastern hemisphere!" until I heard a speeding landrover coming up on me from behind, and then I arrived on the village high street. Set steeply above the street was the church.
St Andrew was strikingly different from any I had visited so far today. The high, Perpendicular chancel rises dramatically above the lower aisled and clerestoried nave, and the tower is wide and squat. It was very attractive. Steps led up from the village street, and the churchyard continues to rise beyond the church to the north. A large, open interior, the nave and aisles necessarily playing second fiddle to the chancel. The vast east window is filled with early 1960s glass by one of my favourite modern artists, Leonard Evetts of the York School. It is one of his largest works, depicting Christ in Majesty attended by various Saints above scenes from the Gospel with an emphasis on those featuring St Andrew. It is thrilling. Everything in the interior leads towards it, which is just as it should be. When you think of how many dismal east windows there are in this world, how lucky the parishioners of Orwell are to be able to sit and look at this every Sunday - I hope they appreciate it.
And then I crossed the busy Cambridge to Sandy road, and in the lanes beyond I entered a quite different landscape. Now the rolling fields were smaller and well-hedged, there were copses and horses, and an intriguing tower poking above the treetops. I was entering the farmlands of the Wimpole estate.
Pelican in her Piety with Instruments of the Passion (Leonard Evetts, 1958)
St Andrew, Orwell, Cambridgeshire
I cycled north from the large, merging commuter villages of Melbourn and Meldreth. Now, for the first time today I was moving away from the busy A10 and the Cambridge to Kings Cross railway line into Cambridgeshire's borderlands with Bedfordshire. In the far distance I could see the village of Orwell nestling against the south side of the same chalk ridge as Barrington, only further west, and the ridge here is higher. It makes a lovely backdrop for the church which I could see from miles off across the flat plain. The road was hedgeless and empty, and this was the one place all day I felt the west wind strongly. A marker beside the road reminded me that the long straight into the village runs along the Greenwich Meridian, at which I couldn't resist weaving back and forth across the road chanting 'now I'm in the western hemisphere!" and "now I'm in the eastern hemisphere!" until I heard a speeding landrover coming up on me from behind, and then I arrived on the village high street. Set steeply above the street was the church.
St Andrew was strikingly different from any I had visited so far today. The high, Perpendicular chancel rises dramatically above the lower aisled and clerestoried nave, and the tower is wide and squat. It was very attractive. Steps led up from the village street, and the churchyard continues to rise beyond the church to the north. A large, open interior, the nave and aisles necessarily playing second fiddle to the chancel. The vast east window is filled with early 1960s glass by one of my favourite modern artists, Leonard Evetts of the York School. It is one of his largest works, depicting Christ in Majesty attended by various Saints above scenes from the Gospel with an emphasis on those featuring St Andrew. It is thrilling. Everything in the interior leads towards it, which is just as it should be. When you think of how many dismal east windows there are in this world, how lucky the parishioners of Orwell are to be able to sit and look at this every Sunday - I hope they appreciate it.
And then I crossed the busy Cambridge to Sandy road, and in the lanes beyond I entered a quite different landscape. Now the rolling fields were smaller and well-hedged, there were copses and horses, and an intriguing tower poking above the treetops. I was entering the farmlands of the Wimpole estate.