A Little History of the English Country Church
by Sir Roy Strong
published September 2007 by Jonathan Cape
ISBN 9780224075220.

Reviewed by Juliet Wilson MBE

I guess that 99% of those who read this would agree with Sir Roy Strong's conviction that our country churches are treasures which must be saved and used - ironically by those, as likely as not, who have never known their history or how they were used. His new book, "A Little History of the English Country Church" deserves to stand alongside those by Pevsner, Betjeman and Jenkins whose fine books on English churches are all written from a different
viewpoint.

Sir Roy's "Little History" takes us from the 3rd century when Christians gathered together were "the church" - stone crosses often marked where these gatherings took place - to the present day when "Adapt to survive" should be the mantra.

Students of Christianity will know that factions are not new. In 664 the Synod of Whitby integrated the Roman rite, brought by St Augustine from Rome in 597, with the more dramatic ceremonies and ritual which had come from Ireland with St Patrick in the 4th century. By the 11th century the "drama and splendour" of the Sarum rite prevailed; relics, images, sculpted figures of the Rood, wall paintings and stained glass proliferated. (The 15th century statutes of Fotheringhay College stipulated the use of Sorum).

From the "Great Rebuilding" in the 11th and 12th centuries some Norman churches survive - or parts thereof incorporated into later buildings. Northamptonshire's Saxon churches at Earls Barton, Brigstock and Brixworth are survivors from the 7th century but nothing is known of the ceremonies they would have seen.

Sir Roy, in scholarly but accessible prose, with a historian's knowledge and the conviction of a Christian, describes the ceremonies and customs of the liturgy in country churches and often the people who built them (Roger Martyn, for instance, at Long Melford).

Northamptonshire is especially well-endowed with medieval churches as members of Northamptonshire Historic Churches Trust find out annually when they go on a church crawl with Bruce Bailey to some remarkable churches.

The importance of "prayers for my sowle" ensured that churches were built,and monuments erected, which remain as evidence of the faith of our forefathers. All churches had to adapt to the traumas of the Reformation, followed by the Marian Catholic revival and the return of Protestanism under Elizabeth. This left congregations confused and fmances depleted.

What happened at the Reformation is of particular interest to Fotheringhay. At this time the great collegiate church built by the Plantagenets was transformed into the chopped off nave with the out of proportion mighty tower and plain interior we have today.

Further upheavals occurred in the 17th century; the Civil War and the influence of the Puritans; then the fragmentation of the non-conformists, both movements strong in our region. Laws were passed making the Church an arm of the state with requirements to conform to the new ritual - the old having been abolished. The Church as the centre of the
community vanished.

In the 19th century the Industrial Revolution brought movements from village to town, changes in social hierarchy, Catholic emancipation, the Oxford Movement and the evangelicals - all of which affected our churches.

Victorian re-ordering and indeed building new churches, mostly in urban areas, re-introduced images and furnishing; not least of these was the return of organs, choirs and music - and in 2000, "Common Worship" was new.

Church visiting, as we know in Fotheringhay, is a recent phenomenon, performed by many who don’t go to a church on Sunday. It is to be hoped that many will read Sir Roy’s “Little History of the English Country Church” and perhaps something will brush off on them of what churches were for. "They can't all be wrong," said a visitor to Fotheringhay Church of all the generations gone by who believed in God and built these wonderful monuments to his glory.

Juliet Wilson, MBE - August 2007.

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