English country churches

There are few sights more evocative of England than a small village whose golden stone cottages are dwarfed by an embattled tower, or a great sweep of landscape from which an elegant spire soars above trees and meadows. The industry and scale of medieval church-building represents an astonishing achievement. At the time of the Reformation there were some 46,000 English country churches, in addition to thousands of monastic churches, cathedrals, chapels and chantries, all raised over a few centuries by a population that numbered little more than the present population of New Zealand. About half still stand, more or less as they were first built. The symbols of religion in England, despite a change in creed, have remained unaltered since Saxon times. You can be married at a chancel step where generation after generation were married before, Chris and your baby in a Norman font, sit in the box. You where a squire sat centuries ago and hear the same words that he heard, read from the same lectern, often from the same Bible. Gazing up words at a great arch or clerestory or hammer-beam roof you may imagine the skill and daring of the medieval masons and carpenters who made it. This book is a celebration of English churches, which despite their basic arrangement of tower, knave, aisles and chancel are so varied in their architecture, regional styles, structural materials, personalities and settings that they present an endless feast, each one combining familiarity with surprise and pleasure. Derry Brabbs has grouped his collection of churches into five sections: early churches, regional styles and materials, estate and Abby churches, tiny or isolated churches and picturesque churches. It is a personal selection of just a few of the many thousands of delightful and historic buildings that adorn the varying landscapes of rural England. - Jacket flap.