The Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Harlton, Cambridge, dates from about 1375, and is one of the finest of the clunch churches of Cambridgeshire. Clunch is used in many buildings in Cambridgeshire. Within the parish boundaries is a 'clunch pit' where much of the local material had been excavated. Where the excavated material is sound and solid it was used as blocks in the construction of buildings and walls. Other clunch could be mixed with straw and water and pounded into mix.  A donkey  was frequently tethered into the centre of a circle of such a mixture: its circular movement mixed the the clunch, straw,  donkey hair (and often droppings) into the mix which would be poured into moulds and allowed to dry. The resulting clay 'bats' could then be used as building material. Because of its porous nature clunch requires some protection from the elements but still needs to 'breathe'.The living belongs to Jesus College, Cambridge. According to Simon Jenkins, in his book “England’s Thousand Best Churches”:

Inside the lightness is dazzling. Harlton is late 14th century, but with charming traces of Decorated about the tops of its windows. The masons seem so attached to the pre-Black Death style that they retained it for the apex of their Perpendicular openings. The east window has four-petal tracery. The windows, free of stained glass, allow the trees and landscape to enter the church and form its backdrop. They are so tall as to need no clerestory. ....Tallness is also the essence of the tower arch, chancel arch, arcades, organ case, old stone screen, even the pews."

The view from the glebe with Organ Cottage beside the church.   

One of the glories of Harlton Church is the magnificent organ case designed in 1847-8 by the Revd Osmond Fisher, Rector of Harlton from 1867 until 1906, which he installed in the church in 1869. Fisher was a remarkable man. Besides being a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, he was an eminent mathematician, archeologist and musician, and a distinguished Fellow of the Royal Geological Society. He was a pioneer of geophysics, and his work is referred to even today in the NASA training manuals for the Moon Ranger Project. During the 1840s Fisher had been Chaplain at Jesus College while the the chapel was being restored. He was strongly influenced both by Sir John Sutton, who was an authority on the history of English organs, and A W Pugin, whose architectural and decorative work was much in vogue at that time.

Part of the Fryer Monument (1632)
The monument has always attracted strong comments. In Cole's Church Notes of 1743 it is described as 'most beautiful and magnificent', whereas in a Camden Society Publication a century later it appears as a 'cumbrous and unsightly structure' - notes in a pamphlet by Anne Garbutt and Dr Jean Wilson

 Four of the twelve Apostles in the stone screen behind the altar, carved by H.J.Ellison in 1934 - he was the son of a former Rector of Harlton, William Ellison ( incumbent 1908-1923).
               Jude                                           Bartholomew                                     James the Great                                     Simon

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Laudate Domine
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