A HISTORY OF HOLY TRINITY CHURCH, BOTTISHAM
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NORMAN TIMES
Bottisham Church, dedicated to the Holy and Undivided Trinity,
was built on a ridge some few metres above the adjacent route which ran from the
fens to the chalk hills to the east. This important route had existed for centuries
before the Norman church was erected. The Romans used the route from the
‘load’ ( now known as the Bottisham Lode), to connect with the Roman villas,
such as the Alington Hill Villa, and the important cross-country route of the
Icknield Way, a few miles to the east. From Medieval times the route was known
as the Green Lane and connected the ‘city’ of lode to the ‘town’ of Bottisham.
There is no doubt that some form of religious building existed at the site
before the present church was built. There is some evidence that parts of a
wooden building were found when the present thirteenth-century tower was built.
An early Norman church certainly existed. Early Norman stones are included in
the tower and in parts of the wall surrounding the churchyard. A twelfth century
coffin lid forms part of the stile built into the churchyard wall. Early in the
thirteenth century the manor of Bottisham was divided between the Priory and
Convent of Anglesey and the Priory of Tonbridge. In 1209, during the reign of
King John, at a time when England was under the Interdict of Pope Innocent III,
the “Priory and Convent of Angleseye” was granted the advowson (a right to
church living) of the church of Holy Trinity, Bottisham, together with the rents of
the free tenants. The 1291 ‘Valuation of the churches of the Ely diocese’ records
that Holy Trinity (Bodeksham ecclesia eiusdem) had
the
highest
assessment, or
taxatio, for ecclesiastical income of all the many parishes of the Deanery of
Camps. This included Great Wilbraham, which belonged to the Templars, and
Sawston which belonged to the Hospitallers. During the period of Interdict the
last rites were refused, the dead had to be buried in unhallowed ground, church
marriages ceased and sermons were preached out-of-doors. After the dissolution
of the monasteries, in the reign of Henry VIII, the advowson was given to Trinity
College, Cambridge, who became the impropriators (the rights in lay hands). As
a consequence of Trinity College holding the advowson of Holy Trinity, the
church was served by a non-resident vicar until 1837 when the Rev. John
Hailstone was appointed, and the Vicarage (‘The Grange’ - now a Care Home)
was built in 1838.
Bottisham was fortunate in having more than its share of generous, local
benefactors in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Seward (1995) records that
in the whole of England, with a population of about three million at that time,
there were only fifty to sixty people with major incomes over £1,000
and about
200 richer knights with an income over £100. Hill (1880) writes:- ‘Bottisham hath
been the nursery of refined wits’ and ‘Let all England shew me if you like three
eminent men (all contemporaries at large) which one pretty village did produce.