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If you were to study every page of my website closely, I think you would pick up an appreciation of most things you really need to know about mediaeval church architecture. I don’t, however, cover everything: church monuments and stained glass, for example, are things that I sometimes find interesting but about which I have no wish to be come an expert. So, if for nothing else, you need books! You also need to know about the thousands and thousands of churches that I haven’t and never will get round to writing about. So, again, you need books. A great deal of what I write is “second hand” knowledge that I have got other people’s books. from church guides and internet sites. I put my own slant on it, and I’m not afraid to question it because - believe me - you soon find out that the book writers also rely on each others’ research. You can soon tell this from the obvious errors that seem to get mysteriously repeated! Nevertheless, I need to tell you about the books I have used so you can reward their authors by buying their books for yourselves. Also you can know about what is good about each - because none of them are good about everything. |
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Books about Individual Churches |
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There are an awful lot of books about churches that are absolute pants. Because churches are accessible and because they are conducive to “ooh, isn’t that lovely?” photographs (usually not taken by the authors), churches are a favourite subject for coffee table books that are looked at once and quickly forgotten. They are fine as presents for your maiden aunt but for serious insights they are useless. If these books are your thing then fine and for sure some of them are beautifully produced and will give you ideas for visits. But make sure you have some serious church literature as well if you really want to learn something. With the exception of one or two I list below, anything along the lines of “England’s One Hundred Finest this “ and England’s Most Beautiful that” is probably produced just as Christmas present fodder. Avoid like the plague any book authored by some media “celebrity” or moonlighting TV journalist. |
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England’s Thousand Best Churches : Simon Jenkins I refer to this book throughout my website. I take issue with the choice of the “Thousand Best” and I don’t always agree with what Simon Jenkins says. In fact, I love to take issue with him! This, however, is the absolutely indispensable first book for your church architecture bookshelf. To write about 1000 churches is an awesome undertaking - and of course he visited many more (or did he use surrogates?). The style is interesting and humorous. The scholarship is superb. They are organised into counties which is the most useful structure for a book (or website!) of this kind. There is a section on church architecture in general, although you might well want to get something more specialised. I have niggling criticisms: the maps are poor because they miss out the towns that enable you to put the church locations into geographical context. They are not worthy of this splendid book, frankly. I would like to see more photographs: most churches don’t have any - and Simon got library shots from Country Life! If they put in hundreds of pictures, however, the book would be unaffordable. I don’t like his preoccupation with tombs and monuments. He would despise, in turn, my preoccupation with Norman fonts and my ignoring churches beyond the mediaeval period - not that I flatter myself that he would be interested in my humble efforts. This book is splendid. Buy it! Do it now! There is a cheap edition available that is one of the best book bargains you will ever have. |
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Harris’s Guide to Churches & Cathedrals - Brian L Harris This is another big book - about 500 churches, I think. It covers England and “some of” Wales. It lays out the facts about the churches in more “bullet point” format that some might prefer to Simon Jenkins’s style. It has about the same proportion of photographs as Jenkins’s book. I prefer Simon’s more lyrical style to Brian Harris’s but that’s a very personal view. Where this book scores is in the articles on individual features of churches - “Wooden Effigies”, “Horses in Churches” are examples. I don’t like its alphabetical format, although to be fair there are lists of churches by county at the front. This is an excellent book, though, that covers some ground that Jenkins’s book doesn’t. If you can afford both then do! Mind you, if you are an habitué of secondhand bookshops and bookfairs, I have seen this book sold at very low prices. Keep your eyes skinned! |
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Betjeman's Best British Churches - Updated by Richard Surman |
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Betjeman’s original book - long out of print - was one of the first I ever bought. The original was extraordinarily terse and ratings were confined to those worth travelling out of your way to see and those that aren’t! The new edition adds a broader rating system and welcome colour photography. It claims to cover a remarkable 2500 churches; and note that it covers Scotland and Wales as well Again, it can’t match Jenkins - or Harris - for descriptive qualities. How could it with 2500 churches? It scores on geographical coverage, sheer numbers of churches and on the best location information. A very useful first book. It has, by the way, very little to do with Betjeman! |
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County Guide to English Churches - Lawrence Jones and Roy Tricker |
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A smaller book than the two previously mentioned. Many churches are covered but the descriptions are much briefer than the other two. Pictures are sparse and all in black-and-white. I think it is out of print but it can still be bought for as little as £3 on Amazon. Frankly, it is less useful than any of the other books I mention here. It does, of course, cover some churches that the others don’t. Get it as an addition to your collection, by all means, but buy it cheap! |
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Timpson’s Country Churches - John Timpson |
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This is not like the other books in this category. Covering only a few dozen churches - but with a whole page for each - it concentrates on the quirky elements of churches and the myths and legends that surround them. It’s beautifully illustrated in colour. If you want a diversion from the usual then this book is for you. Thoroughly recommended. |
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The English Church - England’s 100 Finest Parish Churches - Tim Tatton-Brown & John Crook |
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An excellent book that belies my prejudice against “England’s Finest this and that”! I found this secondhand for £3 and I would say that every church in it really is arguably one of England’s finest, if not one of the one hundred finest. Yes, the text is sparse but Tatton-Brown knows what he’s talking about. The photographs are gorgeous. As an appetite whetter it is second to none. Especially at £3! By the way, the cover price was a £29.99. Don’t pay anything like that. This was a book that was priced with huge discounts in mind |
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The Pevsner Guides These famous guides are a treasure house. There’s one for each county and they cover all the churches, ancient and not-so-ancient. For these are about architecture, not just churches - although churches take up more than half of each volume. They are comprehensive, informative, occasionally funny but often very dry. They are pretty well the definitive source of information about churches. Illustrations are in black-and-white. The problem is that the new additions are expensive - £30-40 plus at today’s prices. You will often find older editions in good condition for around £12 at secondhand bookfairs. Whisper it, but not everything in Pevsner is gospel but it’s as close as anyone has ever got. It is amusing to see how many church guides and even books trot out his work unchallenged! f you can’t afford them, the chances are that your public library will have the ones for your county and maybe those adjacent. |
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Books about Church Architecture and Furnishings |
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Unfortunately some of the best books about the architecture are long out of print. As I search my fairly comprehensive library of church-related books I find I come back to some of them again and again. There are some lovely modern books about church architecture but so many of them exchange scholarship for colour pictures! It’s not that they are bad by any means: in fact they are essential to gaining a general appreciation of features of churches, what they mean and their place in history. It’s just that if you want to find out more about the “why”, the “who” and the “how” no modern book seems to hack it. |
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Parish Churches - Their Architectural Development in England - Hugh Braun |
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This is the “bible” as far as I’m concerned. Hugh Braun wrote a whole series of books on British architecture, including separate volumes on Abbeys and Cathedrals. This particular book, first published in 1970, is 230 pages of insights that you just don’t see elsewhere. It was this book that told me of the Byzantine influence on our early church architecture; about why lead roofing led to parapets and raised aisles; that Decorated and Perpendicular are styles not periods and the list goes on. It is readable and easy to handle. Out of print it may be but decent s/h copies are easy to track down. Target price for a good copy (hardback with intact dust jacket) is no more than £8. No serious student of church architecture should be without it. |
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The English Mediaeval Parish Church - G.H.Cook |
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First published in 1954, this is not far behind Braun’s book as an introduction to the history of the architecture of our churches. If anything, it is more comprehensive but its layout makes it a little harder to read. This one is less easy to find and a s/h copy in good condition with dust jacket will set you back a fairly consistent £12 |
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Mediaeval Styles of the English Parish Church - F.E.Howard |
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Another superb book, this one is much harder to find. It was published as early as 1936 by Batsford and is profusely illustrated with b/w photographs. As with the other two books mentioned here, it’s a superb piece of scholarship although I would want some modern books as well because theories change. Unfortunately, if you want a s/h copy you have to contend with people that collect Batsford books from that era and you will be fortunate indeed to find a copy with a dust jacket; few d/js have survived 75 years and this one features a painting by a man called Brian Cook whose work many people also collect - myself included. You may have to pay £20 for one without a wrapper. |
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Churches and Churchyards - Mark Child |
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This is one of the few modern books that I heartily recommend. Mark Child has tried to cover every conceivable feature of the church, including many ignored by the more scholarly ones previously mentioned. It is packed with colour illustrations that illuminate the text and are not just there to make the book look nice on a coffee table. If you want a compact, comprehensive, modern guide to “church crawling” I don’t believe you could do better. At the time of writing you can get if for £11.69 from Amazon. A snip! |
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Inside Churches - A Guide to Church Furnishings - original edition by Patricia Dirsztay |
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You are probably going to have to search for this one. My copy is a 1993 paperback published the national Association of Decorative and Fine Art Societies (“NADFAS”). This is the most comprehensive book ever about what’s what inside a church, including many things you won’t have thought about. Very clearly presented and profusely illustrated. |
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The Sutton Companion to Churches - Stephen Friar |
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To all intents and purposes an encyclopedia of every thing and every word you have read about churches. An incredible piece of work and indispensable. |
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Rices’s Church Primer- Matthew Rice |
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This is a quirky little book. It is very much an illustrated book about churches, every page packed with labelled watercolour pictures. It is, I think, determinedly non-academic and it is ideal for those of you who really can’t be to read in depth, For anyone, it is an ideal glovebox book, allowing you to put names to all of those quirky things you see in churches, In tandem with the Sutton Companion you should never be short of the right vocabulary, that’s for sure. A delight. |
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More Specialised Books |
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Going to Church in Mediaeval England - Nicholas Orme |
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A wonderful addition to the bookshelf in 2021. To really understand the churches you visit, you need to understand the social and historical context in which they existed. This book fills a gaping hole: what actually went on on those churches? Who went to church and when? What were the services and ceremonies? Who sat where? What happened when a baby was baptised, when a couple married, or at a funeral? What did the priests do and what did they know? How were they paid? Orme explains this and much more in great detail. Truly, I have not seen a book that addresses all this in one volume. It is a book that dispels many of he airy statements made by others (myself included) and is surely the definitive work. This should be on the shelf of every church crawler who wants to understand how a mediaeval church and its society functioned. |
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How to Read a Church - Richard Taylor |
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This book is quite unique. Don’t be misled by the title: this book is not so much about church architecture as about the iconography of a church. If you want to know the symbols of the saints, the significance of popular carvings then this is the book for you. Beautifully illustrated in colour it is a perfect complement to, say, Mark Child’s book. It’s £8.62 hardcover on Amazon at the time of writing which is an amazing bargain. I would recommend you buy the hardback as a small format really doesn’t do this splendid book justice. No church crawler bookshelf is complete without this one. Taylor made a TV series by the same name. It is not a mirror of the book. I think it rambles just a bit and it suffers from pandering to a somewhat low common denominator in its audience but if you stream it or buy the dvd cheaply then I thoroughly recommend it. |
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Fonts and Font Covers - Francis Bond |
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This book was first published in 1923 and has never remotely been equalled. You will find pictures of fonts in this book that you didn’t know existed. Nearly one hundred years on it is still the best book on the subject. It covers Norman fonts, lead fonts, seven sacrament fonts, thirteenth century fonts, fourteenth century fonts...it’s got it all. I was fortunate to find a fine reprint for £12 at a s/h bookshop in Burnham Market but I’ve never seen another. You can, however, get a paperback reprint from Amazon for £18.99. The publishers have retained the original format and text. It’s expensive but for organising font-hunting expeditions it is a pre-requisite. |
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Church Building and Society in the Later Middle Ages - Gabriel Byng |
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Published in 2020, Gabriel explores in depth the social and economic environment after the Plague and how it affected church building projects. There is a lot here about patrons, churchwardens, organisation, contracts and so on. It is not a cheap book but on this vital topic it is breaking new ground. Highly recommended. |
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The Herefordshire School of Romanesque Architecture - Malcolm Thurlby |
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If you don’t know what this is about then read about it and most of the relevant churches on this website by following this link. This is, of course, a very specialised book but it is the definitive one on this subject. Thurlby has searched high and low for examples of the school’s work. He does not confine himself just to the architecture, however, but also traces where the artists found their inspiration and who their patrons were. If you live in this area (and it includes the eastern side of Worcestershire as well) and you love its churches - especially Norman churches - you must have this book. It is paperback and lavishly illustrated in black and white. The bad news is that although the last of its five reprints (since 1999!) was only in 2008 it is out of print and the cheapest offer on Amazon at the time of writing is an eye-watering £45!. If you see one cheap in a secondhand bookshop snap it up! |
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Books about Mediaeval Life |
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In my view it is really difficult to really understand mediaeval parish churches unless you know something about the lives of those who built and used them. This selection of books will tell you just about everything you need to know. |
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The Parish Churches of Mediaeval England - Colin Platt |
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Platt’s series of books about mediaeval England was written in the nineteen eighties and they are formidably researched and very readable. Although this particular volume sounds like a general book about churches, it covers many of the human, social and economic factors that influenced church development. Anything he wrote is worthwhile frankly, but this volume is one I keep going back to. Easy to find secondhand. |
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The Luttrell Village (Country Life in the Early Fourteenth Century) - Sheila Sancha |
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This is a book written for children. Sanchis uses as her model the mediaeval village of “Gerneham” which is a real village now known as Irnham in South Lincolnshire. “A children’s book?” I hear you snort. Well the wonderful thing about this book is that it has the most illuminating black and white drawings on every page and it describes the rhythms and preoccupations of mediaeval life in the most accessible way. It’s not easy to find but well worth looking out for. The perfect complement to one of the more academic books, like Colin Platt’s. If the title rings any bells it is because Irnham was the home of the Luttrell Psalter, one of England’s most important and entertaining mediaeval manuscripts. |
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Walter Dragun’s Town (Mediaeval People at Work) - Sheila Sancha |
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In the same format as The Luttrell Village and the perfect complement to it. The town in question is the historic town of Stamford in Lincolnshire and set in the thirteenth century. Again, not easy to find. If you see it snap it up. |
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Life in the Middle Ages - Martyn Whittock A brilliantly readable account of all facets of mediaeval life. It should be a textbook in English schools. If you can’t find the paperback secondhand for a couple of quid I’d be surprised. Currently available for Kindle for £2.99! |
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The Time Traveller’s Guide to Mediaeval England - Ian Mortimer Written, as the name implies a bit in the style of the “Rough Guides”, this too is a very approachable and very cheap guide to Mediaeval England. Buy it with Martyn Whittock's book. Devour one of them and dip into the other. Currently £4.99 for Kindle. |
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Books about Stonemasons - See bibliography at the end of “The Stonemason and His World” |
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Hard to Find Classics |
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These are one or two gems that you are not going to find easily or, maybe, you won’t want to afford! |
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Anglo-Saxon Architecture (3 Volumes) - HM Taylor and Joan Taylor |
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If you want to know about this period, then this is absolutely the set of books to have. I bought the first two volumes in really good nick for £50 at a secondhand bookshop in Ingleton and I still sweat about the fact that I thought it might be a bit too much to shell out. Published in 1967 in a chunky format, it lists every church with any Anglo-Saxon fabric and provides in-depth information such as you will not find anywhere else, including dimensions. If ever a work could be called “definitive”, this is it. A must-have for the first millennialist. The first two volumes are mainly in Gazetteer form (they are indivisible for practical purposes). The third which I have only found in paperback has in-depth articles about the genre, including many classifications and categorisations. I use this set all the time. |
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The Mediaeval Village - GG Coulton |
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I don’t know whether it says more about the intellectual rigour of earlier times or about lack of lack of intellectual curiosity today but with a few exceptions (Gabriel Byng for example) I find that most of the best books about church development and mediaeval life were published a long time ago. Maybe publishers are to blame. This one was published in 1926 and it is utterly compelling especially in its insights into the lives of the serfs. There are reprints to be had, I think but mine is a hardback first edition in pretty good condition which I got for about £5 on Amazon. It is easy to think that old writers are old hat, but in this field this is not so, believe me. |
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English Romanesque Sculpture 1066-1149 and Later English Romanesque Sculpture 1140-1210 - George Zarnecki |
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Zarnecki was one of the fathers of the study of English Romanesque architecture. He it was, I believe, who first identified the existence of the Herefordshire School and who started to date Romanesque features such as beakhead moulding and carved tympana. These are two small slim volumes consisting of many black and white photographs along with short discourses on the development of the genre. They are not indispensable but if you can decent copies very cheap then do. |
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Three Thames And Hudson Classics |
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The publishers Thames and Hudson are perhaps best known for their art books. I am a devotee, however, of their topographical books of the 50s. 60s and 70s. The production values were far higher than we see nowadays and the books were written and designed by real craftsmen. The photographs were of the highest quality and some of them are books that can be treasured just for their own sake. They can be found in secondhand bookshops with prices that vary wildly. Here are three that I commend to you. 1. “English Parish Churches” (1952). Text by Graham Hutton, photographs by Edwin Smith. An album of 226 wonderful monochrome photographs of many parish churches, some famous some not so famous, with interesting descriptive text. Wonderful not least for the fact that these are photographs of the very highest quality showing the churches in the setting of the 1950s landscape. Quite easy to find and often quite cheap to buy. A dust wrapper will increase the price significantly. A classic. 2. English Stained Glass (1960) - Read, Baker and Lammer. This is the book that convinced me that stained glass was worth studying. 103 photographs are glossy monochrome but there are also 32 coloured plates “tipped in” (that is, individually stuck to the paper page). You don’t see production values like this any more. Great articles on the development of English stained glass and the sort of pictures that will want you to get out in your car. It is a very big book, beautifully bound in violet coloured cloth and embossed in gold with the T&H logo. A hell of a difficult book to find but one that is a delight to own. There is, I am afraid, an inevitability about the slight browning around the edges of the grey printed pages but just accept this as the patina of age that adds to rather than detracts from the book. 3. Architecture and Sculpture in Early Britain (1967) - Stoll and Roubier. Very like the English Parish Churches book but bigger. The photographs cover the whole of Britain from Celtic through to Norman. The vast majority of the subject matter is churches. The quality of the 254 images in stunning. Possibly the best I own. I had to pay £35 for this at a bookfair (or rather Diana did!) and it has its dust wrapper. It won’t be easy to find but if you see it and can afford it, snap it up. Monochrome enhances these subjects rather than detracts from them. |
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