Note 196 — Chapter XIII

Following the road to Long Stanton station (six and a half miles), we there cross the G. E. R. (St. Ives Branch) and proceed, along a somewhat dreary stretch, to Willingham (nine miles), where an exceptionally fine church (All Saints) rewards our toil. After lingering in neglect and decay for years beyond the neighbouring churches, it has now become an ideal example of judicious restoration, very different from the drastic process too often known by that name. Every ancient feature and development has been preserved, including the beautiful roof,[196] with its elaborate carving, its tiers of angels and its double hammer beams, the fine parclose screens, and the Perpendicular pulpit. Beneath the clerestory may be seen traces of no fewer than four successive layers of frescoes, which, from the twelfth to the seventeenth century, each in turn adorned the walls. But the most striking feature of the church is the small Decorated "treasury" adjoining the north wall of the chancel. It is wholly of stone, even to the roof with its richly wrought "beams"; an almost unique example of this method of treatment. Dowsing here destroyed, on 16 March, 1643, "forty superstitious pictures, a crucifix, and two superstitious inscriptions, also two pictures of the Holy Ghost and one of the Virgin Mary in brass."