Holy Trinity Church, Hildersham,

The Priest in Charge is:

The Revd Dr. Julie Norris 01223 891350

The Rectory, 35 Church Lane, Little Abington, Cambridge CB21 6BQ

Hildersham Churchwardens:

Mr. Keith Day        01223 891527    PCC Chairman

Mrs. Cathy Myer   01223 892848  

If you need to get in touch with the Hildersham Parochial Church Council

Please contact our PCC Secretary:

 Mrs. Caroline Hugo  01223 897270

Fairlands, 50 North Road, Great Abington, Cambridge CB21 6AS

For all matters relating to finance -

Please contact our PCC Treasurer::

Mr. David Newble  01223 892425

Little Chilfords, Back Road, Linton, Cambs CB21 4LF

If you are interested in the church building, its history or the Parish Records - Please contact our Honorary Verger, & Local and Family Historian - Andrew Westwood-Bate   01223 892430 - 0787 5469538

To find out more click here

On Sunday 2nd June 2013 we reached one of the milestones along the path of our 'It's Our Turn Now' appeal and works.  Part of our project is the repair and long term preservation of our world renowned Victorian Murals and this has necessitated the re-siting of our heating system oil tank.

As this was in effect a 'steel oil drum' and the village has a local connection with a fabulous local 'Steel Pan Band' called 'Sawston steel' what better way to celebrate this milestone than to have a Caribbean Picnic in our old school Wood area.

We were blessed with a glorious day, wonderful food, and excellent company,

The church itself was open for guided tours of the paintings and for the opportunity for a wide group of people to see some of the plans for the new Toilet and Kitchenette.

While out in the glorious sunshine, there was community singing with an enlarged church choir and the many children took part in a fancy dress parade with the best Caribbean themed outfit, there was a creative session working with clay to make 'Green Man faces' and there was the inevitable Limbo dancing.

Hildersham Old School Wood, as the name suggests is where our Victorian School once stood, is now a much-loved and treasured location and makes a wonderful natural open-air Woodland Cathedral, with an all embracing spiritual atmosphere and we have held many special services there over the years.

With the sun gradually waning, but still compared with our weather of late, the wonderful village afternoon drew to a close with a outdoor community Songs of Praise

We have many more events and activities planned over the coming months, so watch this space:

St Etheldreda in an Nave West window

St Etheldreda reflected in the Tree of Life glass

Hildersham Church Services and Events Programme 2013

Please click here for a list of services in our 7 church 'patch' in June.

If you are interested in Stained Glass there is a special 5th Sunday joint service at St Mary's, Little Abington at 10.45 on Sunday 30th June, when Andrew Westwood-Bate will give a short presentation on Charles Eamer Kempe (there is a 1901 Kempe window at Lt Abington), Clayton & Bell and various other examples of Stained Glass in our Seven Parishes.

Kempe's Makers Mark at Little Abington

Kempe's 1901 Adoration of the Kings at Little Abington

Engraving of Hildersham Church by William Cole 1742

Engraving of Hildersham Church by J S Clark 1894

Painting of Hildersham Church by Rob Howard 2012

Photograph of Hildersham Church by Colin Franklin

He called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father,

and followed Him

Matthew 4:22 KJV

Below is some of the iconography at Holy Trinity, Hildersham, which portrays the story of the verse above:

Medeival Glass at Holy Trinity, Hildersham

Click here for Matthew Chapter4

And he said to them:

"Follow me, and I will make you Fishers of Men"

Matthew 4:18 KJV

Below is some of the iconography at Holy Trinity, Hildersham, which portrays the many images of the Holy Trinity

Holy Trinity

Below is some of the iconography at Holy Trinity, Hildersham, which portrays the many images of the Holy Trinity

Mural of the Holy Trinity above the east side of the chancel arch

painted by Clayton and Bell in 1890

The arms of the Holy Trinity

The Holy Trinity as three fish on a nave kneeler

Holy Trinity as three fish made from mosaic tiles

The Holy Trinity as three hares in Medieval glass

The Holy Trinity shown rarely as three men at the coronation of the Virgin Mary who has a new head at Holy Trinity, Goodramgate, York

Holy Trinity from the Memorial brass of  Henry Paris (Parys) 1466

below is a painting of 1803 by Thomas Fisher, when it still had it's head and dove.  It shows Adam's Skull at the bottom of the cross, click here to read about the story of this from the Golden Legend of 1275

Holy Trinity 'T' in chancel stained glass

Holy Trinity 'T' in chancel roof murals

Above are two Clerestory windows showing the inter-woven Holy Trinity Star a common image at Hildersham here are some more

Holy Trinity star on a candelabra

Holy Trinity star on a Chancel Chair

Holy Trinity Fleur-de-lis on of many designs in the church

Holy Trinity in the south transept roundel

Holy Trinity in East Window top tracery stonework

Holy Trinity star on a gravestone

Ascension Season Victorian Wall Paintings at Hildersham

(Designed by Charles Alban Buckler and painted by Clayton & Bell)

Jesus Ascension into Heaven

Acts 1 1-11

Jesus Taken Up Into Heaven

 ¹ In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach ² until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. ³ After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. ⁴ On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. ⁵ For John baptized with^[a] water, but in a few days you will be baptized with^[b] the Holy Spirit.”

 ⁶ Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

 ⁷ He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. ⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

 ⁹ After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

 ¹⁰ They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ¹¹ “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

Easter Sepulchre prior to 19th restorations with brass clearly on top

Easter Sepulchre as it is today post Victorian transformation into a Knight's Templar tomb

William Bustler & his Lady 1334

(as seen in north corner of the nave)

William Bustler & his Lady 1334

William Bustler & his Lady 1334

(as painted in the old Bustler Chapel in 1803

just prior to the chapel being demolished)

Holy Trinity, Hildersham at Christmas 2010

Hildersham Church at Christmas 2010

Here are some photos of our candle lit service of Nine Lessons & Carols held on Sunday 19th December 2010. 

This is the 130th anniversary of the first service of Nine Lessons and Carols first performed in a wooden shed outside the Truro Cathedral that was being constructed.  Bishop Edward White Benson held the service at 10pm on Christmas Eve 1880, held at this time to encourage his parishioners to spend the evening in church instead of going out carousing.  As the story is told by his son:

"My father arranged from ancient sources a little service for Christmas Eve - nine carols and nine tiny lessons, which were read by various officers of the church, beginning with a chorister, and ending with the Bishop". 

The suggestion had come from the Revd. GHS. Walpole, later Bishop of Edinburgh.

 In the following years the service became popular amongst Church clergy, no doubt helped by Benson's elevation to the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1883.  By 1884, a London publisher was distributing Nine Lessons with Carols: A festal service for Christmastide, and another edition was published by the church's SPCK (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge) making special reference to the Truro original.

The world famous service of Nine Lessons and Carols is of course the one held locally at Kings College, Cambridge.  This was first held on Christmas Eve 1918 inaugurated by the new Dean of King's College, Eric Milner-White. 

The date of the service is very important and it puts the service in context.  It was just at the end of the First World War, Eric Milner White before the war was the was the chaplain of Kings College.  He joined the army in September 1914 and he had spent 4 years at the western front amid "the roar of shaking great guns" and the sight of "bowed and grimy men in mud-brown dress, torn and stained and even bloody".

Milner returned to Kings College in July 1918 and was soon elevated to Dean of the College.  One of his first acts was to hold the memorial service for the war dead of the college on November 2nd 1918, the roll of honour that was read aloud included 199 names of King's men who had fallen in the conflict.  The dead included the poet Rupert Brooke, but also graduates, undergraduates, choral scholars, college staff members and 18 men who had been boy choristers.

The fledgling BBC first broadcast the service in 1928, it missed 1929, but returned in 1930 and has never missed since.

During WW2 you had to be a hardy soul to go to the service as all the Stained Glass had been removed and replaced with shutters and with it went all the heat.  The glass was stored locally in the caves at the Lime Kiln in Balsham.

Christmastide Wall Paintings at Hildersham

There are also two very special wall paintings that are very apt at this time of year, they were painted in 1890 during the last period of Victorian Restoration.  The artists were Clayton & Bell, the architect Charles Alban Buckler, and the designs were paid for the rector's sister Elizabeth Hemington-Goodwin, with the leading Cambridge Camden Society rector, the Revd Robert Goodwin firmly in Charge.

The Nativity - Clayton & Bell 1890

The Epiphany - Clayton & Bell 1890

Engraving of the Church by J S Clarke December 1894

Hildersham Church December 2010

Hildersham Church December 2010

Hildersham Church 9 Lessons and Carols 19 December 2010

Eastertide Images from the Wall Paintings at Hildersham

Palm Sunday

Below are images from the Palm Sunday Procession into Jerusalem

click here for the full image and click on the images below for larger versions of the individual sections

Palm Sunday Procession

Garden of Gethsemane (part 1)

Garden of Gethsemane (part 2)

Instruments of the Passion in the Chancel

Christ crucified on the cross

(East Window - Tree of Jesse - Clayton & Bell 1865)

Alabaster Reredos

(Designed by Charles Alban Buckler and made by Rattee & Kette)

The Resurrection - Victorian Wall Paintings at Hildersham

(Designed by Charles Alban Buckler and painted by Clayton & Bell)

Hildersham's Medieval Stained Glass

Below are some photos of images of Hildersham's Medieval Stained Glass, some still fitted in the church, some long lost, but most of them were recorded in 15 paintings in 1802 by Thomas Fisher in his book Cambridgeshire Churches of Antiquity vol H-L which came up for auction a few years ago and was bought by the Society of Antiquaries, Hildersham paid towards the images being digitised.

"The Fisher (Cambridgeshire) Collection consists of 33 items, most of which are drawings by Thomas Fisher, many dated 1802. The subjects of these drawings are churches and church monuments from various locations in Cambridgeshire. They were probably purchased in 1837 by John Bowyer Nichols, and bound while in his possession. The volume was purchased by the Society of Antiquaries in 2001, from the collection of Lt. Col J C W Francis"

Hildersham in its north wall of the nave has two superb 13th century stained glass windows

13th Century window showing St. James the Greater with St. Martha, the Bustler coat of arms is in the tracery