Bells are soon to ring again for St Peters Church, Maxey

St. Peters Church Maxey is an ancient building imbued in history, dating back to approximately 1113AD. St Peters is Grade I listed and recognised as being of ‘exceptional interest’. Maxey is an ancient settlement, it had strong links with the Beaufort family, Margaret of Lancaster, and the mother of Henry VII, known to have resided occasionally at Maxey Castle. The heritage of St Peter’s Church, the story it can tell us, and the history of settlement and human activity in this area, is of great importance to the local community. The building is a great source of architectural and historical interest. In addition, the church houses a remarkable collection of late-Victorian diaries from Rev Sweeting, containing details of village history and historical facts pertaining to the church and its parishioners.
St Peter’s is on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk register and needs urgent structural repairs. For several years it has suffered with the ingress of water into the South aisle, which now means that half of the seating is covered with a tarpaulin for protection and we urgently need to replace the roof covering on the South Aisle.
More recently, following a serious ingress of water in the tower, it was discovered that both wooden beams supporting the tower roof had serious decay.
These were strengthened with the addition of steel beams and the stonework beneath them was re-laid and repointed.
The tower gutter needed replacing and the bell frame was being affected by the water ingress. We have not had the pleasure of hearing our church bells ring for nearly 2 years.
Fundraising for the south aisle continues but the tower has had to take preference. Afternoon teas, flowers festivals and jazz evenings, supported by the Bluebell Public House, Maxey, were great fun and a fantastic way of bringing the community together, giving us a good start to our funding pot towards the work needed. A combination of grants received from the Cambridgeshire Historic Churches trust, the Earl Fitzwilliam Charitable Trust and the William Gerrard Trust completed the funding and work started on the tower in July 2025 which we are overjoyed to say is now complete. The new gutter is pictured below.
Although this is not the end of the work needed to preserve the heritage of St Peters for future generations, nor the end of the fundraising work, we are working hard towards ensuring that the doors of St Peter’s remain open for the community of Maxey not only for worship but the celebrations of baptisms, weddings, and funerals, those services that we are hold so dear to our hearts.
We look forward once more to inviting ringers to St Peters bells.