St Andrew, Soham
St Andrew, Soham
St Andrew’s is the Grade I parish church of Soham, Cambridgeshire, a late twelfth-century cruciform minster with a large fifteenth-century west tower, in the Diocese of Ely.
- Location
- Soham, Cambridgeshire
- Country
- England
- County
- Cambridgeshire
- City / town
- Soham
- Address
- High Street, Soham, Cambridgeshire, CB7 5HA
- Postcode
- CB7 5HA
- Built
- c.1180–90 cruciform minster; west bay and west tower early 15th century
- Denomination
- Church of England
- Dedication
- Andrew
- Diocese
- Ely
- Parish
- Soham St Andrew
- Grade
- I
- Style
- Late Norman; Perpendicular tower
- Materials
- Rubble with flint and clunch; interior clunch; later Ketton stone to openings
- Grid reference
- TL 593 731
- Opening hours
- Monday-Friday in term-time 9.30am-2.30pm; Mondays in school holidays 11am-4pm; and for Sunday services.
- Access
- Accessible toilets nearby. Level access to the main areas
Overview
Historic England describes a minster church of about 1180–90, extended one bay west in the fifteenth century when the four-stage west tower was built. The late twelfth-century nave arcade and crossing are particularly fine, as are the fifteenth-century roof, pews, misericords and screen. Construction is rubble with flint and clunch; interior stonework is clunch, with later Ketton stone to door and window openings. The tower stands on a double-splayed plinth with blind quatrefoil flushwork and an embattled parapet with crocketed finials.
The nave arcade has two-centred arches on alternating round and octagonal columns with scallop capitals. Crossing arches carry dog-tooth and other ornament of 1180–90. Olaudah Equiano married in the church in 1792. The building has been on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register since 2018 because of roof and masonry condition. It was listed Grade I on 19 August 1959 (NHLE 1126450).