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England's Thousand Best Churches (Paperback)

by Simon Jenkins (Author) "Bedfordshire is not a glamorous county, yet there are surprising pleasures off its all-too-beaten tracks ..." (more)
4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 880 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin; New Ed edition (28 Sep 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0140297952
  • ISBN-13: 978-0140297959
  • Product Dimensions: 22.1 x 15.2 x 3.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 45,327 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #5 in  Books > Art, Architecture & Photography > Architecture > Types of Architecture > Religious Buildings
    #41 in  Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Worship & Devotion > Devotionals

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
Churches, for Simon Jenkins, "have Ruskin's sense of "voicefulness, of stern watching, of mysterious sympathy ... which we feel in walls that have long been washed by the passing waves of humanity." In this fascinating compendium, beautifully illustrated with photographs by Paul Barker from the Country Life archive, Jenkins scours the hills and dales, cities and hamlets for England's Thousand Best Churches and comes up with some old favourites, welcome inclusions and surprising additions. Alphabetically divided by county, Jenkins' parish churches cover all epochs and denominations and are star-rated from one to five. Each church merits a description that is never less than engaging and instructive and serves to remind us of a time when the church was the hub of parochial life in a way that in many areas has diminished today. The church of St Mary and St David in Kilpeck, Herefordshire, for example, "widely regarded as England's most perfect Norman church", boasts some astonishing grotesques: "a pig upside down, a dog and a rabbit, two doves, musicians, wrestlers and acrobats. All the life of a busy and bawdy Herefordshire village is depicted on its church, with no respect for the decorum piety." St Senara in Zennor, Cornwall, possesses a 15th-century bench-end depicting the legendary "Mermaid of Zennor", as well as being the resting place for the last Cornish speaker in the county. The remote timber-frame church of St Thomas à Becket in Fairfield, Kent, rises up from Romney Marsh and has sheep grazing around the door.

Jenkins pays particular attention to the exquisite Wren and Hawksmoor churches in the City of London, such as St Bride Fleet Street and St Martin Within Ludgate, erected during 1670-1720 as part of the rebuilding of the city following the Great Fire of London in 1666. Most were damaged in the Blitz of World War II, but have been extensively restored, even though their parishes have disappeared around them. England's Thousand Best Churches is a varied, informative and entertaining overview of what constitutes, in Jenkins' view, "a Museum of England". From Cumbria to Cambridgeshire, "it is through the churches of England that we learn who we were and thus who we are and might become. Lose that learning and we lose the collective memory that is the essence of human society." --Catherine Taylor --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
'Masterly, perhaps a masterpiece' Independent Books of the Year

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Bedfordshire is not a glamorous county, yet there are surprising pleasures off its all-too-beaten tracks. Read the first page
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4.4 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Controversial ratings, but otherwise as good as it gets., 10 Jan 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: England's Thousand Best Churches (Hardcover)
This is a super book, a comprehensive guide to what, despite one's prejudices, probably are among the best of England's churches. Each entry paints a church in fairly broad brushstrokes, giving major details and the odd little anecdote. Jenkins admits that he only visited about 2000 churches, on the recommendations of others, to narrow down to his 1000. This is, I suppose, as good a way of doing it as any; of course, it all depends on whom you ask. In common with most people I know who've got it, I've enjoyed reading the entries for churches I know, and have found very little to disagree with (the stuff about witchcraft under Ufford still seems a little unlikely). The book would be less useful for planning a visit to a new church, and would, in any case, be rather large to carry. Inevitably, the reader will find something missing, a church or two that they feel should be included. Jenkins' 50-odd Suffolk churches include most of my personal Top 30, but not all of them. I can't understand how he could have missed Westhall and Badingham, for instance; he must have not visited them. But that's okay; if his Suffolk churches were the same as mine, then I might as well give up now. Less useful is the star system, with which everyone seems to disagree. He seems to go for grandeur and triumphalism rather than integrity and beauty; which, of course, he has every right to do. That may explain how Stoke-by-Nayland gets more stars than Blythburgh or Ufford, an otherwise inconceivable decision. Another plus-point is that his agnostic ex-Anglican eyes are not fooled by the 19th century rewriting of English church history; he knows that the puritans are not to be blamed for everything. In short, this immense book is a must for anyone even vaguely interested in English churches and their history.
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21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A lovely book but ....., 10 Mar 2004
By A Customer
This is in many ways an excellent book, the photographs wonderful and the writing, as others have commented, very much a la Pevsner at his pithy best. ... brass rhubarb for the unhelpful keyholder at Dorney, Bucks. indeed - marvellous!

I do, however, have three criticisms:

The first is to do with the book's organisation. Given the ever-increasing fluidity of modern administrative boundaries, which ebb and flow seemingly with each successive Local Government Act, why not use ALL the old, historic, pre-1965/1974 county boundaries, still largely adhered to in the Buildings of England series? Granted we are presented with the recently recreated Rutland and Herefordshire, and even the long-departed Huntingdonshire, so why do we still have to suffer that amorphous lump of "Cumbria", or "North Yorkshire", instead of dealing with the three historic ridings, or the indignity of lovely West Riding churches treated under, horror of horrors, Lancashire.

It may be pertinent that Mr Jenkins has seen fit to go by the old counties in southern England but not in the north and that brings me to my second grumble, namely a slight but still discernable southern bias. We all know that Somerset and Norfolk have outstanding church architecture but so too, as Mr J admits himself, does Yorkshire. So why is it that there are so many more entries for the former than for his "N Yorks" section? And as for Northumberland and "Cumbria", so scanty is the coverage I'm left seriously questioning whether his journeyings actually took him up the A1 much past Wetherby.

Quibble three is that, ex-Anglican or not, there is a wee bit too much concentration on the fourth rate C of E to the exclusion of some first rate Catholic and especially Nonconformist buildings. Yes, Cheadle and Walpole and Tewkesbury Old Baptist are there, but I sought in vane for Newbiggin (Durham), the World's oldest Methodist chapel, or Brigflatts or Colthouse Meeting Houses, and where is the National Trust's lovely Loughwood in Devon?

That said, Simon Jenkins has given us a very fine book and I do hope that he may manage a sequel. Might I be so bold as to suggest a companion 1000 covering the other home countries, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, plus the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands? But please, if you're reading this Mr J, can we have Radnorshire and Sutherland and not "Powys" and "Highland"?!

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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Recommended!, 26 Jan 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: England's Thousand Best Churches (Hardcover)
Every reader will wonder "Why didn't he include St ****?"! But by definition every such selection will be subjective. So just accept that and you'll thoroughly enjoy the book. Faultless prose and wonderful photographs.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A useful and practical guide
Jenkins approaches his subject as an outsider ("They come to kneel and pray to their God...") and the book is written for cultural, historical and most of all, architectural... Read more
Published 24 days ago by D. Hucker

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful...
What a splendid reference book. Naturally I was thrilled to see several parish churches of mine included... Read more
Published on 24 Jul 2006 by J. Hutchings

5.0 out of 5 stars A good start to viewing Englands fine medieval churches.
THIS BOOK HAS BEEEN A CONSTANT SOUCE OF PLEASURE SINCE I PURCHASED IT. THE BOOK WILL BE THE START OF MANY A WEEK-END BREAK AND OFFERS A GOOD REFERENCE TO VISITING CHURCHES IS MANY... Read more
Published on 29 April 2000 by colin.davis4@virgin.net

5.0 out of 5 stars original, stimulating, a superb aid for the curious
We spent two enjoyable days revisiting the haunts of her youth with my 87 year-old mother-in-law;the detail and opinionated nature of the "reviews" interested us all and... Read more
Published on 13 Jan 2000

4.0 out of 5 stars A Lovely Book to Handle
Extremely comprehensive review of its subject. The author's subjectivity, though inevitable, can be irritating. Read more
Published on 28 Dec 1999

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