Local history – a new community project centred on St Andrew the Less

by Tony Jewell and Lyndsay Wright

As some of you may recall, in autumn 2024 a group of Riversiders went on a local history walk, guided by Dick Baxter, during which we visited Abbey House and the Cellarer’s Chequer on Beche Road. At the same time, we viewed the church of St Andrew the Less through the locked gate on Newmarket Road and learned that it had been closed for health and safety reasons. Many of us commented that it was a shame the Church was being left to deteriorate and wondered about its relationship to the old Barnwell Priory.

It is great news, then, to learn about a new community project which has secured approval from the Diocese of Ely to begin work on restoring the church. Recently, some of us met with two of the project leaders and we thought other Riversiders would also be interested to find out more. You can also delve into their excellent website www.standrewtheless.org.

St Andrew the Less is a 13th-century church built by the Augustinian Canons of Barnwell Priory to serve the growing population settling in the area. Today, it stands on Newmarket Road, slightly set back from the street and largely hidden behind walls and hedging.

Little used since the 1970s, the church is now need of significant conservation work, which the St Andrew the Less Community Project estimates will cost at least £1m. But the project’s ambitions go far beyond stabilising an historic building. Meeting with members of the team last week, we were struck by their passion for restoring pride to a community that has long been neglected and marginalised.

“We are bringing life back into the building and bringing the heritage to the community,” we were told by Anne Sheedy, one of the project’s seven trustees, who have recently applied for charitable status.

The project begins with essential restoration work, also plans to repurpose the church as an innovative and immersive heritage centre. Alongside this, the team hopes to create a much-needed community space for the local area and to transform the churchyard into a haven for biodiversity, linking it with other nearby green spaces such as the Abbey House gardens and the commons.

Barnwell: a complicated history

In the Middle Ages, Barnwell Priory was wealthy and influential. It hosted kings – including John, Henry III, Edward I and Richard II – and in 1211 King John granted it the right to hold a Midsummer Fair. In 1381 it became a target during the Peasants’ Revolt, and in 1388 Richard II held his parliament there in what was known as the Cambridge Parliament and England’s first Poor Law was passed there.

Despite these notable moments, Barnwell developed very differently from much of the rest of Cambridge. Located far from the city’s administrative centre at Castle Mound and distant from the growing power of the University colleges, it became associated with people on the margins of society, including the medieval lepers housed at the nearby Leper Chapel.

By the 19th century the area had developed a grim reputation as an overcrowded working-class district, described by Cambridge city-dwellers as a den of vice and immorality. It was also where much of the city’s waste and sewage washed up, eventually leading to the construction of the impressive Victorian pumping station.

That legacy still lingers. Anne explained that many residents of Barnwell (now Abbey Ward) continue to feel disconnected from central Cambridge. By reconnecting people to their heritage, fostering community activity and encouraging visitors to explore beyond the city centre, the project team believes this restoration can bring new life into both the building and the wider neighbourhood.

Getting involved

At present, the project team is engaging with local residents to shape ideas for how the community space could be used. They are also getting ready to apply for National Lottery and philanthropic funding, and developing their strategy for the social change they hope the project will support.

Volunteers with experience in fundraising, policy writing or developing a “theory of change” framework would be particularly welcome. You can also sign up to receive the project’s newsletter via the website, where you will a find a recently launched survey asking for your opinion (alternatively, click this link  Help shape the future of St Andrew the Less! – Fill in form). 

Reconnecting the past with a Heritage Trail

While the work on St Andrew the Less could take as long as nine years to complete, there is one part of the project that residents can engage with right now: the heritage trail.

Although the trail is still informal and may be developed further by the project in partnership with groups such as the Riverside Area Residents’ Association, it is already possible to follow a route linking key historic sites, from St Andrew the Less Church to the Leper Chapel. More details can be found at https://www.standrewtheless.org/heritage-trail/

The website is well worth exploring more generally. We were particularly interested in a map overlay showing the footprint of Barnwell Priory across today’s street layout, including Abbey Road, Priory Road and Beche Road. Notably, it suggests that the Priory’s fishpond may once have been close to our own site. This aligns with archaeological work carried out before our development was built, which identified features thought to be Priory rubbish pits in this area.

Places along the route...

St Andrew the Less: although the church is currently closed, you can peer through the locked gates to see the south door. Above it is the well-known depiction of St Andrew with his crux decussata (the X-shaped “saltire” cross) on which tradition holds he was crucified.

Abbey House: often described as the most haunted house in Cambridge, Abbey House stands on the corner of Abbey Road and Newmarket Road, close to the Cellarer’s Chequer. The oldest part dates from 1578 and was built on former Priory land, much of the Priory stone having been reused elsewhere, including at Corpus Christi College. The house was extended up to the late 18th century. In 1886 the house and gardens were walled off, the Cellarer’s Chequer was given to the Cambridge Antiquarian Society and the rest of the land sold for housing. Abbey House is now home to a Buddhist community and is occasionally open to the public.

The Cellarer’s Chequer: a little way down Beche Road stands the Cellarer’s Chequer, the only building of Barnwell Priory to survive the Dissolution in 1538. Built between 1213 and 1265, it is an attractive single-vaulted chamber, possibly used for storage. The Cellarer was responsible for ensuring the Priory was well supplied, and this building served as a place of trade and administration. It is now owned by Cambridge City Council and can sometimes be visited during Abbey House open days.

We hope that Riverside residents will support the vision of this new community project and, if interested, consider getting involved in some way. Alongside the website, the project also has a Facebook page at tinyurl.com/2kawdphh.