"The church of St Mary in Fen Drayton is a grade 2* listed building with a long and interesting history. The present church is mainly of 14th- and 15th- century pebble rubble construction, but stands on the site of earlier church buildings perhaps dating back to before the Norman Conquest. An interesting outline of the history of St Mary’s is revealed in the List of Rectors which hangs in the south aisle. These records date from 1232 but there must have been other priests before then whose names are unknown.
In 1232 the patron (the person who appointed the Rector of the parish) was the King, though by 1272 patronage rested with the Abbot and Convent of Bon Repos in Brittany. In 1343 the crown had recovered the rights of patronage on account of The Hundred Years’ War in France and for reasons of state this arrangement was made permanent by Act of Parliament in 1415.
In 1447 the advowson (the right to nominate the parish priest) was transferred by letters patent to Godshouse (later to become Christ’s College), Cambridge; and to this was added the benefice (the right to receive the tithes of the parish) in 1520. The college was not required to endow a vicarage and for most of the time from then until the 1930s, the parish was served (if at all) by curates appointed by the college and only rarely licensed by the bishop of the diocese. Meanwhile, the college retained the whole of the rectorial tithes.
Today Christ’s College retains the patronage although from 1933 St Mary’s, Fen Drayton was in a united benefice with St Mary’s, Conington. The parish now forms part of the United Benefice of Fen Drayton with Coningon and Lolworth and Swavesey, although the vicar of this benefice still lives in Fen Drayton. Christ’s College takes turns with the patrons of the other parishes in appoint the parish priest.
The Chancel has an unusual double piscina and double sedilia dating from an earlier 13th-century building. On the north wall there is a singular splayed opening (now blocked). The purpose of such ‘squints’ is now unknown but they would seem to have formed a spyhole for those who were for some reason excluded from the church itself. Nicholas Pevsner asks ‘can it be Saxon?’
The dado of the 14th-century rood screen across the chancel arch survives and bears traces of the brilliant colours in which it must have been painted before the Reformation. A panel from the screen also survives and is hung in the south aisle.
The Nave has four 14th-century arches with octagonal piers and moulded caps. The windows on the north side are 15th-century in the perpendicular style. Those in the south aisle are earlier, in the decorated style. The 14th-century font would originally have been built onto one of the piers."
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"The church of ST. MARY, so named by 1184, built of field stones dressed with ashlar, comprises a chancel, nave with south aisle and clerestory and north and south porches, and west tower. The nave may retain its 12th-century shape. In the early 14th century the chancel was rebuilt and possibly extended and the threestage tower, with its broach spire with small lucarnes, was added. Later in that century the four-bay south aisle and arcade with its octagonal piers were put up, and the chancel arch, whose mouldings match those of the arcade, was renewed. In the 15th century all the windows except those of the tower, which retain curvilinear tracery, were also renewed, mostly with plain tracery. The similar clerestory windows were probably then also added. The three-light windows on the north side of the nave have cusped transoms, similar to those in the south aisle at Swavesey. A 14th-century double piscina and double sedilia, much restored, survive in the chancel south wall. The crucifix on the rood loft was recorded in 1499, and the screen was possibly still intact in 1744, but only the lower part with arched panelling survived in 1850, having been used as backing for two large box pews to the east, which were still there in 1983. Except for the massive Jacobean communion table, the other chancel woodwork with meagre Gothic detailing is probably early 19th-century. The plain octagonal font was still built into an aisle pier in 1850. A Jacobean pulpit had stood by another pier in 1744.
The site of the dismantled altar had not been levelled in 1552. In 1638 the parishioners complained that Francis Apthorpe both neglected his duty to maintain the chancel, and refused to pay rates for repairing the remaining fabric. Both the nave and the chancel, where the women sat, needed much refurbishing in 1685. The chancel was reroofed c. 1844, the north porch towards the street rebuilt by 1850, and the south porch later. From 1855 Frederick Shaw spent heavily, mostly from his private means, but partly from the town land revenues, on restoring the nave and tower. In 1874 Christ's College had the chancel repaired: its east wall was rebuilt and the five-light east window tracery probably renewed. A new roof on the medieval corbels and a new pulpit were then installed in the nave. The high pews, surviving in 1904, were partly replaced with new seating when the nave and aisles were refloored in 1906. An organ, replacing a harmonium, was placed in the aisle in 1980.
There was no paten in 1685. A new cup and paten were acquired in 1701. Another pair of 1842 in Gothic style, the first designed under the auspices of the Cambridge Camden Society, were bought with a flagon and almsdish in 1843. The three bells recorded in 1552 were lost by 1570, allegedly by the fault of Thomas Croxton. Although rejecting responsibility, he left £10 to replace them 'of goodwill'. There were again three bells by 1744, but only one, made at Cambridge and hung in 1828, in the 1850s and later. The parish registers, which begin in the 1570s, have substantial gaps for marriages in the 1670s, for burials 1630-53, and for baptisms 1783-1812. After 1900 Christ's College gave a strip of glebe to enlarge the churchyard.
A 1-a. plot allotted in 1839, in lieu of certain customary rights, to support the parish clerk, yielded £2 a year when the last clerk resigned in 1926. A Scheme of 1928 authorized its income to be used to pay a sexton or bellringer."
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