Address Huntingdon PE29 3RR, UK | ||
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St Mary's Church is located in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, England. The church is said to have been the "Mother Church of Huntingdon". It probably occupies the original site of Huntingdon Priory of Austin Canons, founded here in 1140 by Eustace de Lovetot. It seems to have been used first as a parochial church on the removal of the priory to the east end of the town in the reign of Henry II. In July 1607, the building fell down, but the present church was commenced in March of the following year and was finished in 1620. It is a Grade I listed building.
Architecture and fittings
The church consists of chancel, cloistered nave, aisles, south porch and a western tower, of Perpendicular Gothic era. Crocketed pinnacles and buttresses are enriched with panelling and niches. The nave is divided from the aisles by four arches on each side, supported by round and octagonal columns. Some of the piers, as well as the chancel, exhibit portions of Early English Period and Decorated Gothic work. There is a stone pulpit, the gift of John Montagu, 7th Earl of Sandwich. The font is Early English, with a plain octagonal bowl, resting on clustered shafts.
The whole building was restored in 1876, adding open oak seats and a new triplet east window (the latter a gift from Gerald Vesey, Archdeacon of Huntingdon) and installing its present eight bells (presented by M. E. Maill). This was under the direction of Reginald Blomfield and was completed at a cost, exclusive of special gifts, of over £2,000. There is a monument to the family of De Carcassonett, erected in 1749, and one erected by the officers of the 31st (Huntingdonshire) Regiment, to the memory of their comrades who fell in the Crimean War. The church has seats for 550 persons. The earliest entry in the register of St. Mary's dates from the year 1593.