2-979-108 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Ancient Arch in St. Benedict's Church, Cambridge, 1857. 11th-century arch in St Bene't's Church, the oldest church in Cambridgeshire. Parts of the building are Anglo-Saxon. 'On entering the church we at first see nothing more than a plain building communicating with the interior of the tower by a low broad arch, which is almost choked up...[It is depicted] not as it at present stands, nearly hidden by an ugly organ-loft, but in the condition to which there is good reason to believe it will shortly he restored. The reader will observe that the arch shows some approach to, but is far ruder than, Norman work. The peculiar flat band, or "label," upon the face of the wall, and extending all round the arch, is not supposed to exist in any Norman building...At the spring of the arch upon each side is a curious capital, quite unlike anything Norman, just above which an animal is rudely sculptured in low relief'. From "Illustrated London News", 1857.