Papworth Team Churches
Contact Details:
Team Administrator
14 Alms Hill
Bourn
Cambridge
CB23 2SH
Our church buildings
History of our churches
This part of Cambridgeshire has some very old and fine churches. They do not tend to be very large as the agricultural land around here is mostly very heavy clay and this area was not particularly wealthy in the medieval period .
There has been a Christian presence in the area for far longer than the present churches suggest, even though a good number of them are seven or eight hundred years old. The oldest part of any church in the team must be the area of the chancel arch in St Michael's Toseland, where the capital has delightful carving from the late Saxon or early Norman period. St Helena and St Mary Bourn, a noble building with a curious twisted two-step spire, has a tower arch from the Norman period, though the nave with its alternating octagonal and round columns dates from a hundred years or so later.
These churches, though often ancient, are still very much in use. They provide a focus for communities where there is often no other focus, having lost pubs, shops and schools over the past few decades. The churches seek to be places of welcome, friendship and worship, as well as fine monuments
To find out more about an individual church, please follow the links below.