8 C O N T E X T 1 1 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 9 From John Betjeman’s introduction to the Collins Guide to Parish Churches of England and Wales (1980) ‘The Parish Churches of England are even more varied than the landscape. The tall town church, smelling of furniture polish and hot-water pipes, a shadow of the medieval marvel it was, so assiduously have Victorian and even later restorers renewed everything old; the little weather-beaten hamlet church standing in a farmyard down a narrow lane, batdroppings over the pews and one service a month; the church of a once prosperous village, a relic of the 15th-century wool trade, whose soaring splendour of stone and glass subsequent generations have had neither the energy not the money to destroy; the suburban church with Northamptonshire-style steeple rising unexpectedly above slate roofs of London and calling with mid-Victorian bells to the ghosts of merchant carriage folk for whom it was built; the tin chapel-of-ease on the edge of the industrial estate; the high, the low, the Central churches, the alive and the dead ones, the churches that are easy to pray in and those that are not, the churches whose architecture brings you to your knees, the churches whose decorations affront the sight – all these come within the wide embrace of our Anglican Church, whose arms extend beyond the seas to many fabrics more. From the first wooden church put up in a forest clearing or stone cell on windy moor to the newest social hall, with sanctuary and altar partitioned off, built on the latest industrial estate, our churches have existed chiefly for the celebration of what some call the Mass or the Eucharist, and others call Holy Communion or the Lord’s Supper. Between the early paganism of Britain and the present paganism there are nearly twenty thousand churches and well over a thousand years of Christianity. More than half the buildings are medieval. Many of those have been so severely restored in the last century that they could almost be called Victorian – new stone, new walls, new roofs, new pews. If there is anything old about them it is what one can discern through the detective work of the visual imagination. It may be possible to generalise enough about the parish church of ancient origin to give an impression of how it is the history of its district in stone and wood to give an impression of how it is the history of its district in stone and wood and glass. Such generalisation can give only a superficial impression. Churches vary with their building materials and with the religious, social and economic history of their districts.’ She presents this as a shocking indictment of a general indifference about fine buildings of local interest. A corrective to this pessimistic tone is offered by David Trevis-Smith, the newly elected chair of the Association of Preservation Trusts. Smith looks at how the West Midlands Building Preservation Trust has been helping to tackle this mounting tide of neglect. Andy Foster, author of the Pevsner Architectural Guide to Birmingham, outlines the life of the arts and crafts architect Alfred Thomas Butler. John Thomas highlights William JHWeller, another under-regarded but important arts and crafts architect. Both of these architects’ buildings need better protection than they currently receive. Has Cornerstone, the newsletter of the SPAB (Vol 30 No 2, 2009), anticipated the outcome of the next general election? In commenting on the recent television series about English Heritage, which it agrees did not cast the organisation in a good light, the editorial hopes ‘that the shadow cabinet is intelligent enough to see the bigger picture, and not use this as crude ammunition to damage something as important and worthwhile as English Heritage’. The editorial considers the possibility that the Conservatives might split the organisation. This could involve dividing the part which manages properties from the rest. It suggests that this is made more likely by the fact that English Heritage’s grant programme is now severely limited. Having highlighted, in my last column the case of the fine Victorian font at Draycott, and the potentially drastic precedent for the sale of precious church artefacts to pay for church repairs, the ruling in the Court of Arches has decided that this parish church in Somerset would not be able to dispose of it and rejected claims that the church was facing closure. Also followed up from the previous column is continuing disagreement with, and the questionable value of Home Information Packs and Energy Performance Certificates – described in the letters page by one specialist listed building architect as ‘a misguided waste of money’. In my last column, I highlighted the case of the fine Victorian font at Draycott, and the potentially drastic precedent it set for the sale of precious church artefacts to pay for church repairs. The Court of Arches has now decided that this parish church in Somerset will not be allowed to dispose of the font, and has rejected claims that the church was facing closure. Cornerstone now features a section entitled ‘Site to be Seen’, which reviews forthcoming or recent repair work to several buildings. These reviews have become more broad-brush than used to be the case. This seems to mark a further, regrettable retreat by the society from the detailed technical descriptions and analysis of repairs which, for its professional readership, were such an invaluable aspect of the former, lamented SPAB News. Does this really hold no appeal for the wider generalist membership? Bob Kindred MBE
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjgyMjA=