Parts of
St Clement's
Church in Cambridge date back to the first half of
the 13th century. We visited this church in 2016 and it
was in a sorry state. The roof was leaking which was
causing a pervading musty smell in the building and it
looked very tired. It was great to find that this was no
longer the case in 2023. When we entered the church, we
were welcomed by Robert, who kindly showed us around the
church and even offered us tea and cake! We enjoyed over
an hour with Robert who was very knowledgeable about not
only the church but also Australian Prime Ministers!
During our visit, we noticed some people in the tower who
appeared to be ringing bells but we couldn't hear them. We
learned that there is a new ring of 6 bells installed in
the church which are used to teach people the art of
change ringing. The clapper of each bell can be attached
to the bell, causing it to be silent. Those learning to
ring wear headphones. A computer detects when the bell is
being rung and sends the sound of the bell to the
headphones at the exact moment when the bell would sound.
Thus people can learn to ring without annoying the
surrounding population. What a great idea!
Our next stop was the
Museum of
Cambridge. This is housed in a building dated about
1600. For more than 300 years, it was the White Horse Inn.
Closing in 1934, it became a museum in 1936. It contains
an ecletic collection of items relating to daily life in
Cambridge.
We called into the
Church of St Mary
the Great, locally known as "Great St Mary's" to
distinguish it from another church, you guessed it,
"Little St Mary's". We were not allowed to take photos.
Finding that Evensong would take place at 5:15pm, we
decided to attend. There was a choir of 14 children,
mostly boys. They sang the Responses "Set 2" by Disraeli
Brown, the unison canticles in C by Charles Hylton Stewart
and the anthem "Risen Lord" by Barry Rose. They were not
"King's" but we enjoyed the Service nonetheless.
After dinner at "Popeye's" (a take away chicken
establishment) we called an Uber to take us to
West Road Concert Hall. We
attended a concert provided by the
Academy of
Ancient Music, a very well-known, Cambridge-based
orchestra who have made many excellent recordings. They
performed Handel's rarely-performed first oratorio "Il
Trionfo Del Tempo e del Disinganno" (The Triumph of Time
and Enlightenment). The musicians were Sophie Junker
(soprano) as Beauty, Anna Dennis (soprano) as Pleasure,
Reginald Mobley (counter tenor) as Enlightenment, and Nick
Pritchard (tenor) as Time. The Academy of Ancient Music
used period instruments and was concucted by Laurence
Cummings. The skill of the musicians, both singers and
instrumentalists, was awe-inspiring.
The answer to the question posed above: