In the background, St John's College and The School of Divinity (also belonging to St John's) and in the foreground the churchyard of All Saints in the Jewry. I snapped this with my iPhone last week because it looked so heavenly in the sunshine. Until recently the scene has been 'out of action' because of the ongoing renovations to the School of Divinity and usually at weekends there is a craft fair in the churchyard. I knew this site was once (in the early 13th Century) the site of a cemetery belonging to the Hospital of St John the Evangelist but I didn't know why it was called All Saints' as the church is not close by. So I have mined C. Hadley's website for information on this area - he tells us that 'The church of All Saints in the Jewry.... was demolished in 1865 as it jutted out over the pavement of Trinity Street, which made it very narrow at this point.' And 'Because of Christian religious restrictions on moneylending (which seem strangely to have been forgotten nowadays) Jews had an essential place in the medieval economy. As a major trading centre, Cambridge would have had a sizeable Jewish population - before their expulsion from Cambridge in 1275 they were based mainly in the region between All Saints Church and the Round Church, an area subsequently known as Old Jewry. Hence All Saint's Passage was once called Jews' Street, Vico Judaeorum or Pilats Lane. Queen Eleanor, widow of Henry III, demanded that all Jews be expelled from land she owned, which included Cambridge, so in 1275 after various pogroms (including a particularly violent one in 1266) they were deported to Huntingdon before being expelled from England altogether in 1291'.
There is an interesting fictional account of the pressure on Cambridge's Medieval Jewish population in one of Ariana Franklin's books, 'Mistress of the Art of Death'. (Set in the reign of Henry II)
goodness shades of Adolf Hitler in England...who would have thought!!! Bet trade went down in Cambridge then!!
Interesting history & beautiful windows, spires & all things Cambridgeshire!!
@happypat I know - they really have had centuries of persecution. We are big fans of the Ariana Franklin books if you like a bit of light Medieval murder with a side dish or romance!! Sad that she's died (was married to Barry Norman).
@judithg Barry Norman the film man, I remember him well! I will check her out on Kindle btw I have finished The Misremembered Man by Christina Mckenna & loved it!
Yes I know the craft fair, does it normally hide the beautiful building? I was assured that the shard wasn't moving, but I felt as if it was because there were some hanging moving cables. I'll try and post a picture of the window cleaners at work!
Interesting history & beautiful windows, spires & all things Cambridgeshire!!
Sad that we have such a long history of being horrible to each other. :(