{"id":39296,"date":"2011-12-11T05:40:59","date_gmt":"2011-12-11T12:40:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wend.ca\/?p=39296"},"modified":"2020-04-21T20:10:58","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T00:10:58","slug":"views-from-st-marys-great-church-cambridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wend.ca\/?p=39296","title":{"rendered":"St. Mary’s Great Church, Cambridge"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are so many churches in Cambridge! And, after a while, they all became a bit of a blur. In order to keep from getting overwhelmed, I focused on a particular grouping: Roman, Saxon, Medieval and Norman. So anything dating roughly after 1200 never really hit my radar in the Cambridge adventures.<\/p>\n

This means that the Great St. Mary’s (the University Church often referred to as GSM) missed the cut by a few years. Built and rebuilt in the early 1200s, the church you see today is basically that same church with updates from the 15th century — about the time when the church became the property of Trinity College. <\/p>\n

For a small fee (\u00a33 – if I remember correctly), you can climb to the top of the bell tower and get a great view of Cambridge. When I first visited the church, there was a sudden downpour that made the top slippery and views terrible — so the staff determined it was unsafe. I attempted again a couple of hours later during a break in the storm. The results are in the gallery.<\/p>\n

Campanology<\/a> at St. Mary’s is world-renowned and incorporated into the Cambridge curriculum (watch<\/a>). People travel great distances to hear the style\/chime pattern that this church is recognized for (also used by Big Ben). I wandered by a couple of times for the Monday evening practice to listen in (7-9pm). <\/p>\n