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Church Explorer's Handbook
This is a portable, friendly, non-technical illustrated guide to church buildings and their contents for all who enjoy looking at churches. It is published in association with The Open Churches Trust, founded by Andrew Lloyd Webber to encourage local churches to stay unlocked.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 2005
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March 7, 2025
I have to give this 10 stars because IT HAS LISTS and SCHEMATICS!
And I.... I LOVE A GOOD LIST!
This is all quite mad... there are Lists on EVERYTHING:
- names of Thatched roof churches listed by county: oldest from 1150 St Margaret, Hales in Norfolk, the county with the highest number of thatched roofs - 57!
- decorated sanctuary rings that offered temporary refuge to those fleeing justice: Church of St Gregory in Pottergate, Norwich.
- schematics of Saxon fonts vs Early English fonts, listed by county: St Mary's Church in Deerhurst, Gloucester.
- crypts of interest listed by century: Bamburgh Ossuary in Northumberland.
- churches with Chained Books: St. Wulfram's Church in Grantham, Lincolnshire - established in 1598, it is the oldest public library in England and contains 356 items, including 80 chained volumes and an incunabulum dating to 1472.
- churches with round towers, built mostly in areas with a lot of flint, such as Norfolk, as defences against Viking raids: St Augustine in Brookland, Kent.
- flushwork designs listed by county: St Laurence in Reading, Berkshire.
- churches that share a churchyard: a phenomenon confined to East Anglia and Lincolnshire due to the splitting of an ancient manor that led to the creation of two separate parishes, with the boundary line running between the two churches: the churches of St Mary and St Lawrence in South Walsham, Norfolk.
I've learnt of:
- St Mary's in Fairford, Gloucester with the only complete set of medieval windows.
- St Mary and David in Kilpeck, Herefordshire that's decorated with a whooping 80 corbels in shapes of humans, rams and cute bunnies, amongst other fantastical beasts.
- St Mary in Childrey, Oxfordshire with one of the few surviving Easter Sepulchre where the "body of christ" was kept during Easter, most were disposed of during the reign of Elizabeth I.
[...... there are 2369 churches in the UK dedicated to St Mary, including variations like "St Mary the Virgin" and "The Blessed Virgin Mary", source]
And I.... I LOVE A GOOD LIST!
This is all quite mad... there are Lists on EVERYTHING:
- names of Thatched roof churches listed by county: oldest from 1150 St Margaret, Hales in Norfolk, the county with the highest number of thatched roofs - 57!
- decorated sanctuary rings that offered temporary refuge to those fleeing justice: Church of St Gregory in Pottergate, Norwich.
- schematics of Saxon fonts vs Early English fonts, listed by county: St Mary's Church in Deerhurst, Gloucester.
- crypts of interest listed by century: Bamburgh Ossuary in Northumberland.
- churches with Chained Books: St. Wulfram's Church in Grantham, Lincolnshire - established in 1598, it is the oldest public library in England and contains 356 items, including 80 chained volumes and an incunabulum dating to 1472.
- churches with round towers, built mostly in areas with a lot of flint, such as Norfolk, as defences against Viking raids: St Augustine in Brookland, Kent.
- flushwork designs listed by county: St Laurence in Reading, Berkshire.
- churches that share a churchyard: a phenomenon confined to East Anglia and Lincolnshire due to the splitting of an ancient manor that led to the creation of two separate parishes, with the boundary line running between the two churches: the churches of St Mary and St Lawrence in South Walsham, Norfolk.
I've learnt of:
- St Mary's in Fairford, Gloucester with the only complete set of medieval windows.
- St Mary and David in Kilpeck, Herefordshire that's decorated with a whooping 80 corbels in shapes of humans, rams and cute bunnies, amongst other fantastical beasts.
- St Mary in Childrey, Oxfordshire with one of the few surviving Easter Sepulchre where the "body of christ" was kept during Easter, most were disposed of during the reign of Elizabeth I.
[...... there are 2369 churches in the UK dedicated to St Mary, including variations like "St Mary the Virgin" and "The Blessed Virgin Mary", source]
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