St Mary

There's an awful lot of historical water under St Ives bridge and chapel. For almost a thousand years it was the only access from the south into St Ives for travellers, pilgrims and traders. At one time the chapel was a pub of ill repute, and Oliver Cromwell blew up the bridge!

The tall, graceful spire is visible for miles around. It was used by sailors and others returning by boat along the river Great Ouse to the port of St Ives as a welcoming landmark, and it may even have had a lit beacon to aid their way.
Lying on the Via Devana, the Roman road that linked the army camps at Godmanchester and Cambridge, Fenstanton was the site of a Roman villa. It is also in the Domesday Book.

Situated on rising ground, the church is a spacious cruciform stone building in the Transition Norman, Early English and Later style. It consists of chancel, clerestoried nave of six bays, aisles, transepts and south porch. The embattled western tower with turret stair has eight bells, two of which were added in 1924, and the remainder repaired.