A HISTORY OF HOLY TRINITY CHURCH, BOTTISHAM
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drum which has a moulded bottom rail and five buttressed panels. Applied tracery
and decorative work at the base of the panels, and trefoils at the spandrels, add to
the interest of this undistinguished pulpit. Four of the panels on the drum have
shields attached. The north facing shield is of the ‘See of Ely’. The adjacent
shield is of the arms of the Archbishop. The next shield is of the ‘Doctrine of the
Blessed Trinity’ and the fourth is of JENYNS impaling BULWER. The pulpit
predates the Eagle Lectern by one year.
The font
Traditionally the font would be placed adjacent to the south, or main,
door of a church. In earlier times only those who were baptised could pass the
font. By the medieval period, during the first part of the Mass, those not baptised
could attend the service, but, after the Gospel they left the church and the priest
continued with the Canon. In the 17th century, and probably long before that, the
present Bottisham font stood under the last arch of the south side of the nave
(Cole). By the 19th century it stood midway between the arch and the south wall
of the aisle. This move facilitated the fitting of the drainage pipe: an item for
connecting waste pipes appears in the 1906 Churchwardens Accounts, for the cost
of £3:11:4d.
The font has always been a part of the church furniture and carvers put
their best work into the structure. Norman fonts were often beautifully carved
although they could sometimes be a plain square basin on a pillar. ‘Decorated’
fonts are richly carved and those of the ‘Perpendicular’ period are usually eight-
sided and richly panelled. The remains of a typical Norman font, of the twelfth
century, can be seen in the Allington Chapel at the east end of the north aisle: all
that remains are three fragments of a square bowl, circular inside with a central
drain hole - one side with a chevron pattern, one corner with an engaged shaft.
The present font, of the 13th century, is simple for a font of the ‘Decorated’ style.
It was heavily, not sympathetically, restored in 1840. Hailstone (1873) described
the font as a hexagonal basin, which descends by means of broach stops on square
base of three steps, with a protruding stone of the west side. All trace of the
original cover has been lost. According to RCHM the stone of the base is a coffin
lid fragment.
Nave - tomb slabs
De BODEKESHAM It was not uncommon in the Middle Ages for
merchants to take their surname from the name of their native village. The family
name of de Bodekesham appears at the end of the 12th century, concerned with
local disputes. Early in the 13th century there was a ‘Hugh, the son of Augustin
and Eluina his wife’. Hugh was the priest at Bottisham when the first Norman
church was in use: his name appears on the board at the east end of the nave.
There are two memorial slabs in the nave which could be associated with later
generations of the family.