Go to the back of St Andrew’s church, just past the Rectory you will see a little path which ends in a locked green gate.. From Water Lane there is a little footpath that comes directly to it. Hidden away and obviously excluded from the consecrated churchyard can be found the 3 Martyrs Graves .
The three men are: Francis Holcroft (died 1687); Joseph Oddy (died 1692) and Henry Osland (died 1711). Francis Holcroft and Joseph Oddy were imprisoned under the Act of Uniformity. Under this act ministers were expected to declare obedience and to preach only in the Church of England churches. The fact that these same churches had been Catholic ( until Henry VIII broke from the Pope and Catholic church in the 16th Century) seems to have been lost on the establishment church of the time.
Holcroft, Fellow of Clare College and Vicar of Bassingbourn and Oddy, graduate of Trinity College and Vicar of Meldreth were amongst thousands of others who failed to swear an oath of allegiance and were ejected from their livings. In those days a living was exactly that. Cast out with no home; no work and unable to obtain it in the next village, town or County: these non-conformists against Church of England doctrine were forced to preach outside in the open. Crowds would gather and the preacher would have to rely entirely on the generosity of sympathisers for food; clothes and shelter. Holcroft and Oddy were imprisoned for continuing to disobey the established church – Osland fortunately was not.
Today the legacy of these men and others remains with the Baptist, Methodist (and other protestant denominations) Chapels that we see in many of our towns and villages. These graves located as they are outside the churchyard in Oakington remind us of the religious in-tolerances and persecution that had such a great influence on local and national history.
