Brinkley, Cambridgeshire

Whilst I can see why Alpheton church is kept locked there is absolutely no reason for St Mary not to be open, sited as it is in the middle of the village and surrounded by houses. Its locked status is a shame as Mee makes it sound quite interesting.

UPDATE 29/09/11: I was passing through Brinkley on my way to Depden, of which more later,and stopped at St Mary on the off chance and think that when I first visited I was just unlucky to find it locked.

Having said that Mee made it sound interesting sadly it's not really. True the box pews are good but the rest is rather plain and sterile.

ST MARY. Perp and C19, flint-built. W tower Perp with flushwork decoration at the base. Perp brick porch - a rarity in Cambridgeshire, but frequent in Essex. - Chancel rebuilt 1874, but the four-light E window so typical of c. 1300 and so unlikely for a High-Victorian architect that it must be accurate. It appears indeed in Cole’s drawing (B.M. Add. 5820). It has a quatrefoiled circle and two two-light lancet arches flanking it, with pointed quatrefoil-cusping in the spandrels of the two arches, cf. St Etheldreda, Ely Place, London, the chapel of the Bishops of Ely. Perp four-bay arcade with octagonal piers and double-chamfered arches. Perp tower arch. - PULPIT. Jacobean. - PEW in the NE corner, with Jacobean panels. - Plain later PEWS in the SE, NW, and SW arms too. - STAINED GLASS. Two small C14 angels in the E window and other bits in the chancel. - MONUMENT. Small tablet of 1723 inscribed:

I. P. M.
Richdi White Infantuli Beatis mi
Qui in natus Jul. 9
a Peccato renatus } 12
sine denatus
E Lavacro simul ac Vita excessit
in Vitam auspicata Albatus aeternam

BRINKLEY. It lies in the meadows and hides among the trees with a simple old church from the 15th century. It has ancient glass in its windows with golden-winged angels and a medley of Bowers. There is a broken old font under the tower, a battered Jacobean pulpit, a pew with Jacobean panels for the squire, and old box-pews for the people. On the wall of the squire’s pew is a constable’s staff of 1734, with a little crown carved at the top and gaily painted with the royal arms and the Union Jack. Here two small people are remembered, a boy of four days and a girl of four months. The boy was Richard White, who lived for four days in 1723, "a blessed little infant." He is said to have died near the font while being christened. The girl was Anne Anstey, whose memorial is carved with fruit and an angel’s head, and the words, "Let no sad tear these infant relics mourn." She died in 1710.

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