Blessed John Forest and Blessed Augustine Webster
Our Lady and the English Martyrs, Hills Road, Cambridge
A cathedral-scale Catholic church of the first rank. The architects were Dunn & Hansom of Newcastle, the project bankrolled by the dancer Yolande Duvernay who became Mrs Lyne-Stephens of Lynford Hall, Norfolk. Construction took five years from 1885 to 1890. It was built to the memory of her husband with the fortune he had amassed with his patent for moving dolls eyes.
The exterior is massive, much larger than appears from inside. The parapets are decorated with inscriptions, the carillon bells ring out Catholic devotional tunes, the grand scheme of glass is by Hardman & Co, and all in all it made a shocking statement of Catholic revival in what was then a staunchly protestant city, not to mention its Anglican university. Even today, tourists mistakenly refer to it as the cathedral, although to generations of Cambridge citizens it is simply 'The Catholic'. It narrowly survived German bombs in 1942 which wrecked buildings opposite. As a young child, I lived across the way in Harvey Road and walked in the shadow of the Catholic each day on my way to St Paul's primary school in Russell Street, and it is an abiding presence in my early memories.
Blessed John Forest and Blessed Augustine Webster
Our Lady and the English Martyrs, Hills Road, Cambridge
A cathedral-scale Catholic church of the first rank. The architects were Dunn & Hansom of Newcastle, the project bankrolled by the dancer Yolande Duvernay who became Mrs Lyne-Stephens of Lynford Hall, Norfolk. Construction took five years from 1885 to 1890. It was built to the memory of her husband with the fortune he had amassed with his patent for moving dolls eyes.
The exterior is massive, much larger than appears from inside. The parapets are decorated with inscriptions, the carillon bells ring out Catholic devotional tunes, the grand scheme of glass is by Hardman & Co, and all in all it made a shocking statement of Catholic revival in what was then a staunchly protestant city, not to mention its Anglican university. Even today, tourists mistakenly refer to it as the cathedral, although to generations of Cambridge citizens it is simply 'The Catholic'. It narrowly survived German bombs in 1942 which wrecked buildings opposite. As a young child, I lived across the way in Harvey Road and walked in the shadow of the Catholic each day on my way to St Paul's primary school in Russell Street, and it is an abiding presence in my early memories.