Our Lady of The Assumption and The English Martyrs

Introduction

Our Lady of The Assumption and The English Martyrs in Cambridge was first listed on 26-Apr-1950 at Grade I, list entry 1349061, and the listing was amended on 08-Nov-2022. The church was consecrated on 8th October 1890. It stands at the crossroads sometimes called Hyde Park Corner, and its spire, 65 metres high, is only slightly lower than the tower of Ely Cathedral.

History

By 1879 the congregation at Saint Andrew’s had set out to build a larger church, and the Diocese of Northampton bought adjoining land on Lensfield Road, with financial support from the Duke of Norfolk. In 1884 responsibility for the new church passed to Canon Christopher Scott, and Yolande Lyne-Stephens agreed to pay the whole cost of the building and its presbytery. Dunn & Hansom of Newcastle won a design competition for the church. Serious anti-Catholic opposition troubled the building project.

Bishop Riddell of Northampton laid the foundation stone on 30 June 1887. The local firm Rattee & Kett carried out most of the work. By completion the total cost had risen from £30,000 to £70,000. The church was dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption and the English Martyrs, and later came to be called OLEM.

On Shrove Tuesday 1941, bomb damage shattered the stained glass in the apse and aisles, and the Hardman firm later repaired the windows. The bombing also damaged the priests’ sacristy and the chapel of the Sacred Heart. During the window repairs, some plain or simplified glass was introduced so that the interior received more light. Shrapnel damage from the Second World War is still visible on the walling at the south-east corner.

A major reordering after the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) was proposed in 1972-3, but Gerard Goalen directed a less radical scheme and introduced the central altar. On 7th April, 1973, the present central altar was consecrated. The original High Altar has since been used mainly for reservation of the Blessed Sacrament.

Architecture and furnishings

The stone construction of Our Lady of the Assumption and the English Martyrs uses Casterton stone foundations, Ancaster plinths, Combe Down exterior walls, Bath stone from Farleigh Down inside, and dressings of Plymouth marble and Newbiggin stone. Liturgical east faces geographic south-east, and the cruciform plan has an apsidal east end, a crossing tower, a basilican nave, a western narthex or antechapel, and a steeple over the north porch. The architecture draws on the Early Decorated, or Middle Pointed, style of the last quarter of the C13.

The north nave wall runs for five bays and has flying buttresses, two-light aisle windows beneath separate occuli of trefoils, and a clerestorey of varied geometric tracery. The chancel is apsidal, and the buttresses of each bay end in angel pinnacles. Each large clerestorey window has three lights, with geometric tracery that differs from bay to bay. The crossing tower has two large three-light geometric windows on each side, a crenelated parapet pierced by finials, and a tall crocketed pinnacle at each corner.

Approximate internal dimensions are a length of 48 metres [157ft], a width of 16 metres [52ft] across the aisles, a width of 22 metres [72ft] at the transepts, and a nave height of 15 metres [49ft]. A stone tierceron vault with carved bosses covers the interior. At Our Lady of the Assumption and the English Martyrs, the large west window has six lights with geometric tracery and is flanked by stair turrets, while the gable holds a choir of angels rising towards the Coronation of the Virgin. The west doors sit in a portal of three archivolts, and the tympanum of fleurs de lys has a Virgin and Child on a trumeau.

Canopied figures of Saint Joseph and Saint Anne flank the west portal, under the Magnificat text FECIT MIHI MAGNA QUI POTENS EST. A two-sided clock face projects toward the crossroads on a large stone bracket. The Hills Road porch trumeau shows Saint John Fisher, the tympanum has the Virgin Mary among martyrs in a vine, and the canopy rises to the Crucifixion. Pinnacled canopies beside that archway house the martyred Saint Alban and Saint Thomas Becket.

The north transept has four narrow lancets and a rose window of six oculi, each with three rounded trefoils, centred on a carved figure of Christ. Carved spandrels hold the beasts of the apocalypse, and an inscription asks prayers for Yolande Lyne Stephens, foundress of this church. An open-tracery stair turret at the south-east corner is surmounted by Our Lady ringed with a choir of angels. An inscription along the rising staircase quotes the Song of Solomon (3:6 and 6:9), associated with the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.

An elaborate ironwork screen separates the narthex from the nave. The south wall of the narthex-transept has a C19 wall painting by NHJ Westlake. The vaulted baptistery has an ironwork gate and a font carved with scenes of the Seven Sacraments. Above the chancel arch, a wall painting by NHJ Westlake shows Christ with the company of heaven, English martyrs and religious brethren.

The north transept walls have figures of Saint John Fisher and of Saint Andrew, and the Saint Andrew was designed by Pugin and came from the earlier mission church. The parclose screen in the transept originally enclosed the chancel until the 1970s reordering. The Chapel of the Sacred Heart has a richly painted vault, a floor brass by Hardman of Birmingham marking a grave, and a substantial carved reredos. A stone organ gallery with a balcony of pierced quartrefoils faces the transept, and the organ, by Abbott and Smith of Leeds, is contemporary with the church.

The priests’ sacristy fireplace is inscribed FLAMMESCAT IGNE CARITAS. The porch has an encaustic-tile floor and a sculptural portrait of Yolande Lyne-Stephens as a head stop. The Rood between nave and sanctuary is a Majestas: Our Lord with glorified wounds, in alb, stole and pallium, and crowned.

Parish life

Boy and girl altar servers serve Mass on a rota on Saturdays, Sundays and special occasions in the week. Local people in crisis receive help from the Cambridge City Foodbank, of which the parish is a founder member. On Wednesdays, a Cambridge City Foodbank session is held at the church. Flowers are placed in the church for its worship by a team of flower arrangers.

The local OFS group meets in the church hall once each month. Members of the parish SVP conference, a lay group that helps people in need person to person, meet regularly to pray and support one another. A Bible study group meets on Thursdays. Once a week, a textile group meets for textile work and conversation.

At least six months' notice is required for Holy Matrimony. The parish includes communities in Ditton and Bar Hill.

Sacraments and pastoral care

Masses, end-of-year services and concerts may be held in the church by primary and secondary schools, and group confessions can be arranged during the week. Visits to housebound people living in the city bring them Holy Communion, prayer and company.

Altar servers in the Guild of Saint Stephen must have made their First Holy Communion, and they may be aged from 7 to 99. Local ringers from the area ring the bells for mid-week services, weddings and special occasions.

A preparation class for parents and godparents is held in the parish before a baptism. The baptism candle is provided by the church. For a child being baptised, parents are encouraged to bring a white shawl or white robe. Parents who seek baptism for a first child are asked to attend a baptism course with the pastoral assistant.

First priority for wedding bookings goes to parishioners, and second priority goes to people with recent family ties or baptismal connections to the parish. No marriages are celebrated on Holy Days of Obligation or during Lent and Advent.