Parish Church Treasures: The Nation's Greatest Art Collection
Ebook
An enthralling guide to the largely unrecognised treasures of England's remarkable Parish Churches, 'the supreme treasury of English vernacular art and memory'.
Our parish churches constitute a living patrimony without precise European parallel. Their cultural riches are astonishing, not only for their quality and quantity, but also their diversity and interest. Fine art and architecture here combine unpredictably with the functional, the curious and the naïve, from prehistory to the present day, to form an unsung national museum which presents its contents in an everyday setting without curators or formal displays.
Because church treasures usually remain in the buildings they were created for, properly interpreted they tell from thousands of local perspectives the history of the nation, its people and their changing religious observance.
John Goodall's weekly series in Country Life has celebrated particular objects in or around churches that are of outstanding artistic, social or historical importance, to underline both the intrinsic interest of parish churches and the insights that they and their contents offer into English history of every period. Parish Church Treasures incorporates and significantly expands this material to tell afresh the remarkable history of the parish church.
It celebrates the special character of churches as places to visit whilst providing an authoritative and up-to-date history at a time when the use and upkeep of these buildings and the care of their contents is highly contentious.
An enthralling guide to the largely unrecognised treasures of England's remarkable Parish Churches, 'the supreme treasury of English vernacular art and memory'.
Fascinating, authoritative and beautifully illustrated; aimed at a wide audience
From the same stable as the Simon Jenkins bestsellers, England's 1000 Best Churches and 1000 Best Houses (which also originated as weekly columns in Country Life)
Author is Architectual Editor of Country Life magazine, who will promote the book to their fast-growing and affluent readership
This book will be promoted in and via Country Life (199,000 weekly readers; 38,000 subscribers) The weekly feature which is the genesis of this book has generated an unprecedented response in Country Life readers
Handsome enough for a coffee table; compact enough to keep in the car (includes map and index)
Reveals a cornucopia of hidden wonders that will encourage readers to look at their own local church with new eyes
Helps to inform the debate at a time of massive and collective, potentially destructive, change for parish church buildings
Map
Introduction
1 Inheritance, Before the Year AD 1000
2 Genesis, 1000-1199
3 The Church Triumphant, 1200-1399
4 The Late Medieval Parish, 1400-1535
5 The Tudor Reformation, 1536-1603
6 Protestant England, 1603-1699
7 The Anglican Church, 1700-1799
8 Revival and Renewal, 1800
9 The Twentieth Century and the Millennium, 1900 to the Present
Acknowledgements
Bibliography
Index
Truly fascinating … both an art history book and a travel guide
Goodall has a superb eye for the exquisite and eccentric detail that makes English parish churches unique in contents and thus in character. His God is truly in the small things as well as the grand.
This is an important book at a crucial time. These treasures are under threat in a looming heritage crisis as great as that which affected the country house in the twentieth century. What might seem a comfort read is, in the hands of John Goodall, a wakeup call – both to the Church authorities and to those within the localities – that some hard decisions will have to be made if these treasures are to survive the twenty-first century.
Parish Church Treasures is the perfect church guide. Written chronologically, revealing the enormous antiquity, origins and fascinating stories of our English churches, and with riveting examples and illustrations, it will make church visiting even more enjoyable. A masterly and much-needed volume.
An elegant and erudite guide to the often hidden treasures of English parish churches.
John Goodall is without question the greatest writer on medieval architecture today. His look at the parish churches of England is a fascinating examination of our past and our achievements. This book is a must.
A gorgeous book
- Title: Parish Church Treasures: The Nation's Greatest Art Collection
- Authors: John Goodall, Paul Barker
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Continuum
- Print Publication Date: 2015
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781472917645, 9781472917638, 1472917634, 1472917642
- Resource ID: LLS:9781472917645
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-12-12T07:31:14Z
Dr John Goodall is an award-winning author and Architectural Editor of Country Life, responsible for the celebrated articles on country houses that feature in the magazine each week. Previously a researcher and historian at English Heritage (where he was involved in the re-launch of their guidebook series and worked on several flagship exhibitions), he has been involved in various television series on history and architecture, including BBC1's The Way We Built Britain (2007), presented by David Dimbleby.
Paul Barker is one of the UK's leading architectural photographers and has illustrated many books including Simon Jenkins' England's Thousand Best Churches (1999) and the publication accompanying David Dimbleby's BBC1 architectural series How We Built Britain (2007). Recently he has been the author and photographer of three books which celebrate the architectural merits of three great cities: Liverpool, Dublin and Leeds.