CONINGTON is a parish in Cambridgeshire near the town of Saint Ives. It lies to the south of the A14 road between Cambridge and Huntingdon, in the Rural Deanery of North Stowe and in the Archdeaconry and Diocese of Ely. Its parish church has been dedicated to Saint Mary certainly since 1465 and perhaps two centuries earlier. Confusion sometimes arises because there is a second village called Conington lying to the south of Peterborough in the former county of Huntingdonshire but which is now also included in Cambridgeshire. The church of All Saints in Conington near Peterborough is in the care of the Redundant Churches Fund. The ecclesiastical parish of this Conington is united with that of Holme in the united benefice of Yaxley and Holme with Conington. The name Conington may derive from a personal or tribal name 'Cuna' or it might come from the Anglo- Saxon word for a 'king'. The suffix '-ton' originally signified an enclosure and later a homestead or a collection of dwellings. Conington might thus have been either 'Cuna's enclosure' or 'the King's enclosure'.

St Mary's Church

The Parish Church of Saint Mary is of unusual appearance, displaying three distinct styles. The oldest part of the present church is the west tower, probably dating from the 14th century and built of stones collected from the village fields. Some years after the tower was built, it was topped out with an octagonal spire rising to 29m. As built, the tower was only 3.2m square but in the 18th century it was supplied with massive sloping red-brick buttresses because it was settling towards the southwest, not having originally been built to bear the weight of the spire. The church is entered from the west through the tower by way of a rusticated doorway dating from the time the nave was rebuilt in 1736-7. Above the doorway is a broken pediment enclosing an oval window. There are still traces of an original tower west window. The arch in the east wall of the tower between the tower and the nave is probably original to the building of the tower. There is a gallery in the tower from which the bells are rung. A balustrade to the gallery in the tower arch dates from about 1737 but is not in its original location. By 1911 the tower had deteriorated into a dangerous condition and a major work of strengthening and repair was undertaken. The spire and weather-vane were also attended to at this time.

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