The English Village Explained: Britain’s Living History by Trevor Yorke Page B
Authors: Trevor Yorke
Ads: Link
the finest .
FIG 8.11: Tombs for nobles became popular in the 14th century and memorials range from brasses in the floor (popular with the merchant class) to raised chests with effigies depicting the deceased in armour, as above. A sign that the rich were becoming aware of the grim reality of death is the addition of a cadaver (a carved skeleton) viewed through the side of the chest below the effigy (although the actual body in any tomb inside or out was always underground). These memorials are usually the first opportunity you will have to come face to face with local historic figures, although the early effigies are not true representations of the deceased as death masks were not introduced until the later 14th century. The wealthy often continued to bury their dead in the family parish church long after they had moved their home to another manor .
FIG 8.12: The Reformation and the period of religious turmoil afterwards caused a dramatic transformation of the parish church as this before (top) and after view (bottom) shows. Wall paintings were limewashed, stained-glass knocked out and screens pulled down .
Another addition to the church which was popular at this time was a chantry chapel, with a private altar where the mass could be sung in memory of the founder (‘chantry’, as in ‘chanting’, comes from the Latin word cantare which means ‘to sing’). Tombs and memorials for family members could also be sited here. Anyone in a particularly generous mood could found a collegiate church run by a group of secular clergy who would pray for the soul of the founder. The site would usually include an existing or new edifice, a college building or grammar school for the education of a limited number of pupils and an alms or bede-house for a selection of elderly or poor men. Both chantry and collegiate churches were suppressed at the Reformation in the 1530s, which also marked the beginning of a period of reduced building and development.
Chapels and Victorian Gothic
Although a few new churches were built in the Classical style during the 17th and 18th centuries, the fabric of existing buildings changed little during this time. Some parts, like towers, were replaced when they fell down but were often built in the now cheaper brick, while many had embellishments added to give them a fashionable makeover to complement a new manor house or landscaped park. Inside seating was often added in this period, including private box pews for important families and galleries high up alongside thewindows and columns to provide extra seating where populations expanded. Church attendance, however, was declining as the more accessible and dynamic nonconformist groups like Baptists and Methodists found a resonance with villagers. They erected chapels which vary mainly in size rather than design, with a symmetrical façade featuring large semi-circular and later, pointed arched windows and a central doorway. Inside, the large single space usually had a gallery supported on wooden or iron columns around three sides.
FIG 8.13: LONGNOR, STAFFS: Churches built in the 18th century tend to have one large body of the building with tall round-arched windows, as in this example dating from 1780. Nonconformists – religious groups who would not conform with the Anglican doctrine – were from 1689 permitted to worship and in the next ten years nearly 3,000 Quaker, Baptist, Congregationalist and Unitarian chapels appeared. These and many other groups found popularity especially in fledgling industrial villages where the Church of England was slow to erect new buildings, and open settlements where the local lord had little direct involvement. By the 19th century nearly half of the church-attending public went to Chapel, their form similar to the above church, just varying in scale and material .
The Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829, allowing Catholics to worship openly once again, and the revival in the Church of England in the following
FIG 8.11: Tombs for nobles became popular in the 14th century and memorials range from brasses in the floor (popular with the merchant class) to raised chests with effigies depicting the deceased in armour, as above. A sign that the rich were becoming aware of the grim reality of death is the addition of a cadaver (a carved skeleton) viewed through the side of the chest below the effigy (although the actual body in any tomb inside or out was always underground). These memorials are usually the first opportunity you will have to come face to face with local historic figures, although the early effigies are not true representations of the deceased as death masks were not introduced until the later 14th century. The wealthy often continued to bury their dead in the family parish church long after they had moved their home to another manor .
FIG 8.12: The Reformation and the period of religious turmoil afterwards caused a dramatic transformation of the parish church as this before (top) and after view (bottom) shows. Wall paintings were limewashed, stained-glass knocked out and screens pulled down .
Another addition to the church which was popular at this time was a chantry chapel, with a private altar where the mass could be sung in memory of the founder (‘chantry’, as in ‘chanting’, comes from the Latin word cantare which means ‘to sing’). Tombs and memorials for family members could also be sited here. Anyone in a particularly generous mood could found a collegiate church run by a group of secular clergy who would pray for the soul of the founder. The site would usually include an existing or new edifice, a college building or grammar school for the education of a limited number of pupils and an alms or bede-house for a selection of elderly or poor men. Both chantry and collegiate churches were suppressed at the Reformation in the 1530s, which also marked the beginning of a period of reduced building and development.
Chapels and Victorian Gothic
Although a few new churches were built in the Classical style during the 17th and 18th centuries, the fabric of existing buildings changed little during this time. Some parts, like towers, were replaced when they fell down but were often built in the now cheaper brick, while many had embellishments added to give them a fashionable makeover to complement a new manor house or landscaped park. Inside seating was often added in this period, including private box pews for important families and galleries high up alongside thewindows and columns to provide extra seating where populations expanded. Church attendance, however, was declining as the more accessible and dynamic nonconformist groups like Baptists and Methodists found a resonance with villagers. They erected chapels which vary mainly in size rather than design, with a symmetrical façade featuring large semi-circular and later, pointed arched windows and a central doorway. Inside, the large single space usually had a gallery supported on wooden or iron columns around three sides.
FIG 8.13: LONGNOR, STAFFS: Churches built in the 18th century tend to have one large body of the building with tall round-arched windows, as in this example dating from 1780. Nonconformists – religious groups who would not conform with the Anglican doctrine – were from 1689 permitted to worship and in the next ten years nearly 3,000 Quaker, Baptist, Congregationalist and Unitarian chapels appeared. These and many other groups found popularity especially in fledgling industrial villages where the Church of England was slow to erect new buildings, and open settlements where the local lord had little direct involvement. By the 19th century nearly half of the church-attending public went to Chapel, their form similar to the above church, just varying in scale and material .
The Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829, allowing Catholics to worship openly once again, and the revival in the Church of England in the following
Similar Books
