About Saint Laurence’s

To make an appointment

If you wish to make an appointment to see the parish priest, arrange for a baptism, marriage, or contact any of the parish groups for which no direct contact is given, please contact the Parish Office by phoning the Presbytery on 01223 704640, between 10am and 1.30pm, Monday to Friday. At other times, if the phone is not answered, you can leave a message on the answering machine.

Geographical Area

Saint Laurence’s parish covers the area of Cambridge north of the River Cam. As well as the area in close proximity to the church, it serves Arbury, Kings Hedges and North Chesterton. In addition, it covers the outlying villages of Histon, Impington, Girton, Cottenham, Milton, Landbeach and Waterbeach.

The parish school is approximately one mile from the church, close to the junction of Arbury Road and Kings Hedges Road and the growing community of Orchard Park. Mass is said in the school hall every Sunday at 9.30am.

History

In the early twentieth century, Mass was celebrated by a priest from Our Lady and the English Martyrs in an upstairs room of the Dog and Pheasant Pub in Chesterton. By the time Chesterton became a separate Parish in 1947, Mass had moved to a corrugated iron hut in the High Street.

Fr Patrick Oates arrived in 1951 and set about raising money to build the church, which was completed in 1958. There have been various alterations over the years, including the removal of the communion rails in 1987 and the building of the new parish rooms, kitchen and office in 1994.

In 2006, further work was undertaken to add a new balcony and porch, and on 27th February 2006 St Laurence’s was consecrated by Bishop Michael Evans.

In 2014, we commissioned the making of a new tapestry, which now hangs on the sanctuary wall.

Saint Laurence

The most celebrated of all Roman martyrs, Laurence was one of the seven deacons of Rome. According to tradition, when the Prefect of Rome demanded that he hand over the Church’s treasure, Laurence gathered together the city’s poor and suffering and presented them to the official with the words: “Here is the Church’s treasure.”

Although most modern authorities agree that Laurence was beheaded, the legend that he was roasted alive on a grid attained such credence that from the fourth century his emblem has been a gridiron.

The Diocese

St. Laurence’s became part of the Diocese of East Anglia when the diocese was formed in 1976 out of the Diocese of Northampton.