13 January 2023

Churches

St Swithin's Church, Wellow, Nottinghamshire

Stepping back in English history, there were times when just about everybody went to church. Family, social, employer and landowner pressures meant that church attendance was more or less obligatory. The church was at the very heart of every village community and it thrived.

All of the big stuff happened in the church - baptisms, weddings and funerals. Churches were solid and strong, built to last. They had bells that called you to worship and contained beautiful things - unlike the hovels that most parishioners inhabited.

The clergymen who presided over churches sought to explain the meaning of life through The Bible and associated prayers and songs. They built an edifice of words and holy notions that would be almost impossible to resist.

Though I have been a lifelong atheist, I recognise the key role that the church played in village life. Nowadays hardly anybody goes to church  but the voices and footsteps of those who went before us are still there - like echoes. We can't pretend otherwise. Many of them predate The Norman Conquest of 1066.

In the fourteen years I have been taking photos for the geograph mapping project, I have submitted images of over a thousand churches. I am fascinated by them and on my country rambles, despite my atheism, I always make a beeline for the church, hoping that I will find it unlocked.

Along with the top one, here is a small sample of  the churches I have visited and not one of them happens to be in Yorkshire:-

St Paul's Church, Flash, Derbyshire

Church of St Peter and St Paul, Old Brampton, Derbyshire

All Saints Church, Saxby All Saints, Lincolnshire

St Stephen's Church, Forest Chapel, Cheshire

The Cathedral of the Peak, Tideswell, Derbyshire - dedicated to St John the Baptist

St Margaret's Church, Wetton, Staffordshire

Normanton Church by Rutland Water,  Rutland

35 comments:

  1. Beautiful and atmospheric. I'm not an atheist but am not religious either. However, I also love churches, chapels and cathedrals.

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    1. Somehow they reflect the hopes and dreams of earthbound human beings.

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  2. *The Universe is the most extraordinary masterpiece ever constructed by Nobody.*
    G.K. Chesterton, pulling the tweedy leg of George Bernard Shaw.

    At least we know that the forest chapel of St Stephen's in Cheshire and the Church of St Peter & Paul in Derbyshire (my favourites) were constructed by Somebody in honour of Nobody.

    *May the peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds.*
    Paul of Tarsus, a first century Jew : Philippians 4:7.

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    1. I believe they were built with funds extracted from the local populace.

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  3. I enjoy the church photos. It's obvious that church attendance has collapsed. Many of the building are next thing to completely fallen apart. Today you show a few churches that obviously have someone looking after them. The mega churches bother me as they are based completely on growth. The think big is better. What ever they do, they won't find me attending.

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    1. Then you my friend will be bound for Hell! Better apply some sun cream! Lots of it!

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  4. As I like to say, I love the building of the church, both insider and out, but cannot condone what goes on inside.

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  5. They are so solid and so beautiful. In Hamburg, Germany there is a Church of St Peter and St Paul, I was christened there.

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    1. Well you are a dark horse River. I never knew you were born in Germany.

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    2. I'm a Hamburger.

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    3. That's nothing. I am a Yorkshire pudding.

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  6. Do we get to vote? I will anyway. I really like the last one, perhaps for its setting as much as anything. It's a bit ostentatious really. Wear your ostentation with pride.

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    1. That is the newest of all the churches - built between 1826 and 1829. It was saved from the rising waters of the vast reservoir it now sits right next to.

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  7. Incredible ecclesiastical photos YP. You have some beautiful churches in Yorkshire. Fountains Abbey, Bolton Abbey and York Minster come to mind.

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    1. Also Beverley Minster - but it is the small village churches I like best.

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  8. There is something appealing about a church, with or without any religious beliefs.

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    1. It was where our forebears came together as communities.

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  9. I remember your photo of Normanton Church, looking as though it's growing out of the boat.
    Not a great fan of Churches, though I can appreciate the architectural splendour of some of the Cathedrals, but much prefer the simplicity of country churches. Not a church goer, which stems from having to attend when at school.

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    1. Like me you are bound for Hell Carol! See you there. We will have a nice chat by the fire.

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  10. Like you, I try to get into any church or chapel we come across on our walks and hikes. The atmosphere can be very different from one to the other, and every time I imagine what it would feel like to be part of that particular community. Some places speak to me more than others.

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    1. Sometimes I feel like an explorer checking out the cultural remains of a foreign empire.

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  11. Well I'm a church person in the sense that I love their history and they remain like extinct dinosaurs (well almost) in the landscape reminding us of people's lives through the centuries.

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    1. Like extinct dinosaurs.... that's a good way of putting it Thelma. I hate the idea of them crumbling, their towers collapsing and their pews rotting but that is starting to happen.

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  12. There is a lot of exploring and discovery to be seen in those. Love the last one.

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    1. Every old church in England has a different story to tell though at first the stories may seem very similar.

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  13. I wonder if part of the reason that churches were built to be so magnificent while, as you say, the parishioners were living in far less grand circumstances, was to remind everyone of their particular god's power and grandeur, thus increasing the chances of obedience and faithfulness to the religion. I can absolutely understand the place the church held in the villages and as architectural examples they are pretty amazing.

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    1. In past times church towers would have been the tallest structures around - demonstrating the power of religion in a visual manner.

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  14. That Rutland church is especially unusual. I think it's sad that churches are sparsely attended these days, but I don't want to go, so I understand it! I think if I were raising a child I might take them to church, though, for the cultural underpinnings and moral messages. I grew up in a Presbyterian church and although I never believed in the theology in a literal sense, I think the experience made me a better person all around.

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    1. The church often implies that we need their religion to be good people and to have a moral structure but I can't see it myself.

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  15. I am drawn to old churches for many reasons. One of those reasons is that they tend to have an adjacent cemetery filled with the faithful. Here in America, without as much history, those sorts of churches are very few with the exception of our east coast. It certainly is proof that the church is losing it's influence among the populous.

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    1. It seems that in parts of America the church is really going strong!

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  16. I love churches, at least old churches, not the modern ones that look like movie theatres or gymnasiums. What I don't like is the people in the churches with their rules and admonishments, just ruins the whole spiritual feel of the place for me.

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    1. I like your comparisons. Sadly, true.

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  17. Stunning photos. I love churches too.

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    1. Thanks Patricia. You have some lovely churches in Essex. I have only visited a few of them.

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