Haslingfield 

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Historical notes about the Parish of Haslingfield

Like a mountain in this flat land is the little Chapel Hill, from which we have a superb panorama of the whole valley of the Cam and almost half the county. On the horizon a gleam of the sunlight reveal Ely Cathedral a score of miles away, and the towers and spires of Cambridge, and of no less than 80 village churches, peep between the trees. Many of these churches were made from the white clunch quarries of this hill, known for centuries as White Hill, but now named after the famous shine which crowned its summit, and we fancy that the prehistoric track through Burnt Mill Bridges on the Cam below was the way the medieval pilgrims came to this shrine of Our Lady of White Hill. Between the pilgrims and the prehistoric road-makers came the Saxons, whose cemetery was near by.

But the villagers need go no farther than their own hill of Haslingfield for a view, never more delightful than when the limes about the church tower put on their spring finery. This 15^th century tower is the glory of the church, and well it may claim to be the finest village tower in the county, with its magnificent windows, its turrets rising round the wooden spire, its band of quatrefoils like a piece of embroidery, and gargoyles peering from under the parapet.

Most of the rest of the church is 14^th century, including a big porch and a little porch, arcades rising with clustered pillars in a spacious interior, and exquisite windows. Those to the south have tracery like butterfly wings, and many have fragments of medieval glass. The glass in window is interesting, not for its beauty but for its story of Bishop Mackenzie, Haslingfield’s vicar, who died in 1862 as a missionary in Africa. We see him preaching to the natives while chained slaves tramp through the jungle, and we see his grave, which Livingstone himself marked with a wooden cross. The oldest part of the church is the chancel, with Norman stones in its walls and a carved arch on clustered pillars made when Norman ideas were passing. The 600 year old font has a painted Jacobean cover. The pulpit and many of the bench ends are 15^th century, and quaint corbels of men and animals support the old open timber roof’s with pierced spandrels.

A curate (William Clark) was here for 54 years of last century, has his memorial, and there are several to the Wendy family, who entertained Queen Elizabeth at their moated manor house when she was on her way to Cambridge. She arrived a few years after the death of her old physician Thomas Wendy, whom we see here in alabaster kneeling with his wife, he in armour and she in a farthingale and a hooped skirt; below them is their son, also in armour, with his bonny wife in a fashionable trimmed cloak and a bonnet on her curly head. Sir Thomas Wendy of the next generation appears as a white marble figure standing in a niche with a crested helmet, gauntlets, and a sword hanging above him, and by the side of Francis Wendy’s wall-tablet kneels the wife who survived him for 42 years, out of the Civil War into the reign of Dutch William and Mary.

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Historic images from around the Parish of Haslingfield

This small selection of historic images of Haslingfield 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.

All Saints' Church Haslingfield

A Haslingfield Farmhouse

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Public Events in and around Haslingfield

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Hotels, Apartments and B&B's in Haslingfield

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