CHAPELS.
Probably in the 1220s the rector of
St. Mary's, Burwell, with the consent of his
patron, the abbot of Ramsey, agreed that his
parishioners at the 'vill' of Reach might have a
chapel, in which a chaplain supplied by the
rector would serve weekly. The men of Reach
were to pay that chaplain one mark a year
through the rector, who reserved to himself all
ecclesiastical dues. (fn. 61) That was presumably the
origin of the chapel of St. John, standing
north-east of Reach green, on the Burwell side.
It eventually had an endowment of 45 a., supposedly yielding c. 1550 only 23s. 4d. net, held
of manors in Burwell. After 1547 it was confiscated and in 1552 sold by the Crown. (fn. 62) By the
1440s another chapel, named for Ely priory's
patron, St. Etheldreda, had been established on the Swaffham Prior side, possibly near
the rise called in modern times Church Hill:
about 1570 it was said to have stood near a way
to the limekilns. In 1449 the bishop of Ely
allowed inhabitants of Reach to worship in it,
without prejudice to the rights of Swaffham
Prior's two churches. (fn. 63)
Lying on the boundary between two dioceses,
Reach might provide shelter for heretics wishing
to escape the attention of the authorities. In 1457
the bishop of Ely discovered, and forced abjuration upon, a Lollard who, among his thirteen reported anti-clerical and anti-ceremonial
beliefs, held that the dead could as profitably
be buried in the fens as in holy ground. (fn. 64)
Inhabitants of Reach in the late 15th and early
16th centuries mostly considered themselves to
belong to St. Mary's parish in Swaffham Prior,
in and around whose church they most often
requested burial. (fn. 65) They usually directed to that
church their bequests for masses and obits, one
as late as 1546, (fn. 66) and other gifts for building
work (fn. 67) and ornaments. (fn. 68) Such bequests only
occasionally went to St. Cyriac's, the other
Swaffham Prior church. (fn. 69) Several men, however, also bequeathed funds for the priest of St.
John's chapel in Reach and for chaplains saying
masses in it for one to five years. (fn. 70) A guild of St.
John was recorded c. 1490-1525. (fn. 71) One man left
in 1515 one mark to maintain St. Etheldreda's
chapel. (fn. 72)
In 1552 the only goods left at St. John's chapel
were two small bells, (fn. 73) but a silver gilt pyx was
found c. 1860 buried in a pit under its former
chancel floor. (fn. 74) In 1571 the Crown purportedly
sold both that chapel and the site of St.
'Andrew's', apparently demolished in the mid
16th century, with a graveyard. (fn. 75) That site, converted to pasture, was actually occupied for a
time from the 1540s by men of Reach who allegedly used the income for the poor of their
hamlet, before being granted from 1575 as copyhold of Shadworths manor in Swaffham. (fn. 76) St.
John's chapel was still standing in 1650 when its
repair was recommended. (fn. 77) By the early 19th
century the chapel yard at Reach where it stood
was treated as part of Burwell's town lands. (fn. 78) In
1743 there still stood there the roofless eastern
part of that chapel, consisting of the exterior
walling of transepts or of one bay of aisles, and
a two-bayed chancel, in the tops of whose threelight windows survived sections of tracery. By
1769 only the chancel east wall, still standing in
1993 with short return sections, was left. Of its
walling, repaired c. 1901, the lower parts may
be 13th-century, the upper ones, with larger
squared stones, 15th-century. (fn. 79) Fragments of
carved masonry in the street walling of East
Reach manor house may come from one of the
chapels.
In 1857 new vicars of Swaffham Prior and
Burwell, faced with strong dissenting competition at Reach, held open-air services at the
chapel ruins. (fn. 80) By 1858 they had procured a
curate to hold services in a public house club
room. (fn. 81) In 1860 Burwell sold the chapel yard to
the vicar and churchwardens of Swaffham Prior,
who raised over £750 to build there, south-west
of the ruin, a chapel, opened later that year, seating 150 people, and also intended to house a
church school. (fn. 82) Initially the dean and chapter
of Ely, as lords at Swaffham Prior, gave £20 a
year, continued after 1873 by the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners, to help Swaffham's vicar pay a
curate for Reach. There was no curate by 1873, (fn. 83)
when the vicar himself took evening services at
Reach. When his health and income gave way c.
1883, the vicar of Burwell took over the chapel, (fn. 84)
only to withdraw in turn early in 1896. The
poorly attended chapel was then closed until a
new vicar of Swaffham resumed services late
in 1897. (fn. 85) An elderly clergyman procured in
1899 served as curate until 1913. In 1901
the Commissioners bought and expensively
repaired a house at Reach to rent to him. After
he briefly resigned in 1908, they raised their
contribution to his salary, following an appeal
from 133 inhabitants, in 1909 from £50 to
£120, (fn. 86) which came to four fifths of his income.
After his successor left in 1918, owing much
rent for the house, a Reach schoolmaster was
employed as lay reader until 1938. (fn. 87) Two more
curates served between 1939 and 1954. When
the second left, the curates' house, mistreated
by its recent occupants, was sold in 1955, (fn. 88)
and the chapel, still open in the 1990s, (fn. 89) was
served thenceforth by the clergy of its mother
parishes.
The 'school church', although in 1941 it was
still unconsecrated, (fn. 90) was by 1866 styled Holy
Trinity, (fn. 91) to which St. Etheldreda's name was
added by the 1950s. (fn. 92) In Gothic style, it comprises four bays, with nave and sanctuary under
one roof and lower transeptal, screened-off vestries, and is built of local stone, variegated in
the arches, cornices, and buttresses with red
brick. The sides have short paired lancets, the
west front, below a star in plate tracery, larger
triple lancets, lightly cusped, which surmount a
double-arched entrance. Above them a mostly
brick belfry contains a single bell (fn. 93) and a clock.
In 1914, when a choir had been formed, an oak
lectern and altar rails were brought from St.
Cyriac's, Swaffham Prior. (fn. 94) After severe storm
damage in 1958 the roof was largely renewed
and new tiled, and damaged pews were replaced
by others from Soham. (fn. 95) An electronic organ
was installed in 1961. (fn. 96) About 1990 the chapel
was partly maintained from Reach's share of the
Swaffham Prior charity income. (fn. 97)