Bottisham 

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Historical notes about the Parish of Bottisham

Halfway from Newmarket to Cambridge we come upon Bottisham overhanging cottages and the graceful tower of a church which glories in some of the finest 14^th century work in the county. The tower and the gaunt chancel with its fine stone seats are 13^th century but the nave and aisles and porches are all as the builders left them in the 14^th. The south porch has a beautiful inner doorway through which we enter by a wicket door, to find that the rich arcading of the south wall runs along the inside as well as the outside wall. This south aisle has a stone seat for the priest, a piscina, and in its floor an ancient coffin lid. Above the stately arcades is a clerestory of fluted lancets of rare beauty, and the traceried aisle windows are richly moulded inside and out. Here is the font where the children who saw this beauty grow were baptised; and there are three old screens of the 14^th century, two of oak and the rarest of stone, with three delicate open arches before the chancel. There is an ironbound chest of 1790, and some fragments of carved stones, the oldest being a Norman tympanum.

A table tomb has the mark of a vanished brass portrait of Elias de Beckingham, who was said to be with one exception the only honest judge in the reign of Edward the First. Only he and one other were acquitted when every judge was charged by the king with bribery. A sculptured monument of three centuries later show Margaret Coningsbye kneeling behind her husband, both in black robes and ruffs. Cherubs hold back the curtains of a stone canopy to show two children asleep with flowers in their hands, Leonard and Dorothea Allington, of whom the inscription of 1638 tells:

These the world’s strangers were, not here to dwell.

They tasted, liked it not, and bade farewell.

The east window and a tablet close by are in memory of Colonel Jenyns, who rode down the Valley of Death at Balaclava and survived. Other memorials to the family, whose home (Bottisham Hall) was rebuilt in 1797, show Sir Roger and his wife sitting on their tomb holding hands, with dressing-gowns thrown over their night things as if they had just woke from sleep. Their son Soame was for 38 years in Parliament, a keen debater, and is remembered here by angels garlanding an urn.

Bottisham is one of the group of villages in which the village colleges of Cambridgeshire are being developed. The first college was built at Sawston in 1928, and the idea of there magnificent modern buildings is to draw children over eleven from the villages round into an atmosphere in which they will develop a taste and a capacity for rural life and craftsmanship, with facilities for training themselves in whatever career they desire, and with opportunities for practising music or drama, cooking or needlework. The buildings at Bottisham are charmingly planned so that all the principal room run round a curve and look out on to the playing-field. The Bottisham buildings were planned by the county architect Mr S. E. Unwin.

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Historic images from around the Parish of Bottisham

This small selection of historic images of Bottisham are from our British National Image Library. You may click on the thumbnail pictures to view larger versions and read what information we have regarding the image.

Bottisham Village College

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Public Events in and around Bottisham

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Hotels, Apartments and B&B's in Bottisham

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Map of accommodation in the East Cambridgeshire area