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Updated: June 9, 2025
Above the roof is fine open screen-work, and against the adjoining piers, east and west, are large canopied niches. The figure has cope, mitre, and staff. The bishop's heart only was buried here. In the next arch is a large Decorated structure of two stories, believed by Scott to have been built by Walsingham as the base for the shrine of S. Etheldreda.
It has been said that, besides Ely Cathedral, six ancient churches in England are dedicated to S. Etheldreda. In this number the ancient episcopal chapel in Ely Place and the destroyed church at Histon, Cambridgeshire, are probably not included.
The bishop also erected a lofty timber spire on the west tower, which remained until the present Decorated stage was built. We have no account of the consecration of the Norman choir. But after this extension of the building eastwards we read that the whole church was solemnly dedicated on September 17, 1252, in honour of Saints Mary, Peter, and Etheldreda.
The body of S. Etheldreda was in her time removed into the church, under the superintendence of Archbishop Wilfrid. Bede gives a full account of the translation. The monks who had the charge of providing a stone coffin suitable for the reception of the remains of the foundress are said to have "found" one of marble among the ruins of Grantchester, the name of the old town of Cambridge.
Do I know the lady already, perhaps?" "I believe that you may do so," Alfred said, looking grieved, in a strange way, as if he were half minded to laugh at me for all his seeming vexation. "Odda says that you do, and so also says Etheldreda. Her name is Thora, daughter of Jarl Osmund, and she will have Wareham town and Poole in right of her marriage, as dower to her and to my sea captain."
Here St. Etheldreda founded a monastery in the seventh century, which ultimately became a cathedral, Ely having been given a bishop in 1109. The present buildings date all the way from the eleventh to the sixteenth century, so that they give specimens of all Gothic styles.
Etheldreda had no finery in which to appear on festivals, and went in russet for many years after. He weighed the money; and finding it an ounce short, accused them of cheating the King, and sentenced them to pay 300 marks more.
But with Odda had come his daughter, the Lady Etheldreda, who would not leave him; and she and the Lady Alswythe and Thora were yet in the house, and Osmund the jarl sat in the hall, listless and anxious of face. It was an ill time for him; but there were none of us who did not like him well, and feel for him in his helplessness. "What news?" he said, when he saw me come into the hall.
"You are a wiser man than I thought you, Ranald," she said; and so she went from me, and I stayed by the fire, thinking thoughts that were sweet and yet troublous, for beyond tomorrow's fight I could not see. Then the lady came back, and with her she brought a little glove, worn and shapely from the hand that it belonged to. "She bids me give this to her king and warrior," Etheldreda said.
Whether this church was so built by Ethelbert or not, it seems clear there was some church in a state of partial decay standing in 673, because it is recorded that at first Etheldreda designed to restore it and to make it the centre of her religious work; but the present site was judged to be more suitable, and there she began to build.
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