Services are held on Sundays as listed in the village newsletter Village Voice which you will find elsewhere on this website.
For pastoral enquiries, please contact:
Churchwarden John Robertson 01638 507484
www.raddesley.com
History
Extract from ‘Historical Notes on Brinkley’ By R Cory.
It is believed that an earlier Church was replaced by the present one partly based on the fact that the names of the Parish Priests date back to 1260.
The present Church of St Mary was built during the Perpendicular period, probably in 16th or 17th Century and still retains the original tower with its fine perpendicular arch, and a very beautiful East window which poses quite a mystery. Commenting on the stained glass at the top of this window which is medieval, Nikolaus Pevsner in his Cambridgeshire volume of Buildings of England refers to it as ‘so typical of c1300 and so unlikely for a High Victorian architect that it must be accurate’.(Indicating that the Victorian architect who restored the Church in 1875, and replaced all the other windows, did not design this East window.) The window appears, too, in the drawing of Brinkley Church by William Cole who carried out a very complete survey of Churches in Cambridgeshire in 1750; this proves that the window was there before the restoration of the church.
Nikolaus Pevsner draws particular attention to the brickbuilt South porch, claiming it to be the only one in the County. The North window of the Chancel contains a jumble of fragments of pieces of 14th century stained glass. The pulpit is probably 18th Century with Jacobaen panels, similar to those in the squire’s pew. At one time there was a ceiling with carved main beams but these appear to have been removed in 1874 and used to support the floor of the Nave pews.
The Church Bells
The tower contains 6 bells.
1. Cast by William Dobson of Downham Market in 1820
2 Cast by Johanes Draper in 1602
3 Cast by Johanes Draper in 1609
4 Cast by Thomas Newman in 1723 or 1725
5 Cast by William Hull between 1671 and 1687. South Malling, Sussex.
6 Cast by Thomas Gardiner of Sudbury in 1727. This last bell has the impressions of four Queen Anne coins in its waist. Its weight is about 15cwts.
The bell tower and frames were restored in the 1980s. The bells are rung by visiting teams on a regular basis.
Copies of the book Historical Notes on Brinkley by R H Cory are available from villagevoicenews@tiscali.co.uk
Rectors of Brinkley
1260 Baldwin de Moyun
1338-1341 William de Cotesbrok
Roger de Sybesdon
1349 John Adinet
1377 John
1391 John de Kykeby
1391 William de Herbyngdon
1393-1395 Nicholas Stokes
1395 John de Norton
1397 Richard de Elyngdon
1399 John Randolf
1400 John Maister
1402-1408 Thomas Morton
1444 John Smyth
1444 John Wright
1447 Thomas Bolton
1456 William Spence
1465 Thomas Thorlby
1469 William Mitton
1487 Walter Briston
1493-1494 John Warde
1494 John Watnoo
1505 William Cadion
1506-1538 Richard Adcock
1538 John Boner
1569 John Synger
1573 Laurence Barnwell
1602-1625 William Ellys
1625-1658 Robert Sendall
1663-1713 Heigham Perne
1716-1751 Christopher Anstey
1751-1767 Thomas Rutherford
1768-1769 John Currey
1770-1809 Reginald Braithwaite
1810-1817 George Cooke
1817-1872 George Francis Holcombe
1872-1889 Francis Drake Thomson
1889-1893 Charles Manley Roberts
1893-1897 James George Easton
1898-1912 William Henry Bray
1912-1916 Percy Urwick Lasbrey
1917-1934 William Edward Waddington
1935-1950 Howard Percy Hart
1951-1969 Philip Randle Kerr Whitaker
1969-1973 Peter John Lloyd
1973-1980 Ronald Crowther
1982-1983 Norman Andrew Burnet
1984-1986 David Matheson Hunter
1986-1992 Nigel Ernest Hartley Holmes
1993-1999 John Stuart Askey
2000-2006 David John Cockerell
2007- 2014 Pauline Ann Reid
2017-Nicola Antoinette Mann
Brinkley Churchyard
There have been a couple surveys done of the gravestones in the churchyard, one by Cambridgeshire Family History Society in 1983 and a second in May 2007 by a local and updated in 2016.
If you are interested in a particular family name then e-mail villagevoicenewsletter@btinternet.com with details and we will endeavour to provide any information we have.
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