We know quite a bit more about what happened to Saint Wendreda’s remains after she died than we do about her life. She may have lived in the 7th century, she may have been a herbalist and healer, she may even have been the sister of Saint Etheldreda of the Kippered Hand. In any event there is one solitary church dedicated to her in the town of March.

After her death, her remains were enshrined in Ely cathedral. In the early 11th century the Danes were busy taking over England. On the home team we had Ethelred the Unready and his son Edmund Ironside, and the away team was Sweyn Forkbeard, and his son Cnut the Great. After their fathers had died, Edmund faced off against Cnut at the battle of Assandun in 1016. Edmund had a secret weapon. To make sure that god was on he side, he brought along the decomposing body of Wendreda.

Maybe he should have disinterred a saint who was good at fighting.

He was defeated by Cnut, who took the remains of the saint as well as the throne of England and Edmund’s mother, who he married. Cnut presented the corpse of Wendreda to Canterbury cathedral. In 1343 the much traveled skeleton was again moved, this time to the church at March that bears her name. In 1545 during the Reformation her tomb was destroyed and her remains were lost. All that is left of her now is the church.

John Betjeman, poet laureate and teddy bear impersonator, said that Saint Wendreda’s church was worth bicycling forty miles into a headwind to see. It’s not clear if he actually bicycled that far, or if it was a purely conceptual journey on his part. It’s difficult to tell with poets, even the ones like Betjeman who could actually make things rhyme. When a poet says, “It’s worth bicycling forty miles into a headwind to see,” he might really mean, “Actually I took the bus from Ely.”

The church is lively. While Upwell church has a band of angels holding up the roof, Saint Wendreda’s has a whole flock.

They are playing musical instruments. Lute

Harp

Sackbut

Washboard

The ones higher up are encrusted with cobwebs.

The descriptions say the angels are half life sized, but what is the half life of an angel? We may need to build a high energy angel accelerator to find out.

The say that there is also a devil in the roof somewhere, but I couldn’t find it. There are some nice gargoyles, though.

We did not bicycle forty miles to see the church but we did walk a mile each way on a hot day. There used to be an arm of the canal that ran in that direction, but as it also served as a drinking water supply and open sewer it was filled in after the cholera epidemic.

Other highlights of March include a fountain which has no water…

… and a stone cross with no cross.

The waterfront park does have bunnies, and I got to watch the evening silflay.

Oh, and the fountain has battle swans and dragons, which almost make up for the lack of water.