Friends, Let us showcase English church architecture through the ages. This is something all of us can discuss, regardless of familiarity or expertise, because God's majesty shines forth in beautiful buildings. I will make a gallery in successive posts. Of course, throughout the centuries many buildings collapsed, burned, or were destroyed - and then rebuilt in different styles - so don't mind about mixing styles. For any churches constructed before about 1600 this is bound to happen.
It's exceedingly difficult to find pictures of pure ecclesiastical styles before about the 1000th year of our Lord. Fires, wars, accidents, and renovations are to blame. Celtic Architecture is characterized by its small size, primitive masonry, and lack of ornament in the stonework. We might mistake them for simple chapels - but their locations in the wilds of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales may explain the small size. Remnants of a church at St. John's Point, Killough, Northern Ireland (I think) Anglo-Saxon Architecture is characterized by simplicity, rough work, and Christianized druidic symbols carved in the shapes of human and animal faces - perhaps precursors to the famed gargoyles. There are more genuine, unchanged Anglo-Saxon churches than Celtic ones. Escomb Church, Durham
Norman Architecture is characterized by two exterior styles: one, with rounded edges and circular apses (Byzantine influence); the other, with strong rectangular edges outside (Frankish influence). Almost all Norman church interiors are supported by rounded Romanesque arches decorated with Moorish-style paint. Frankish Norman: Southwell Minster Byzantine Norman: Kilpeck Church, Herefordshire
Gothic Architecture is the most varied style in English history, generally lacking cohesiveness. It can be divided into three periods: Early (1220-1330) Decorated (1330-1420) Perpendicular (1420-1520) Early Gothic retained Norman rectilinear styles, for the most part. It developed tall spires, symmetry, and tall thin Lancet windows using the newly-discovered "Chartres Blue" stained-glass. Salisbury Cathedral, Wiltshire (the only large church consistently in this style) Decorated Gothic is the style most often associated with the word "Gothic". The gargoyles, darker stained-glass windows with heavy tracery, and lack of symmetry often lend an alien or otherworldly quality to exteriors. York Minster, Yorkshire Perpendicular Gothic developed into a style combining Norman lines with Early Gothic clarity. The Decorated spires remain, but many carved creatures & ornaments begin to disappear in favour of smoother exteriors. Many of these churches have dark interiors, however, retaining Hellish imagery. Gloucester Cathedral, finished in 1499
Stalwart, the Maria Laach Abbey from that era, in Germany, has pretty tall & clean shingles on its spires as well. At any rate, you're correct: Southwell Minster's roof nearly collapsed in the 19th century, so its old spires and roofs were replaced - but the sand-coloured stone is the original. Like I said, these churches have been done and redone dozens of times over the centuries. Unfortunately (for some ) many of them are now missing essential elements from the era in which they were built, mostly due to our Victorian ancestors. See this.
Tudor Architecture is difficult to pin down. A designation of "Tudor" today generally carries implications of quaint thatched roof cottages and half-timbered walls facing country lanes. Rather, it is a broadly late-Gothic style, with thick, flat profiles creating a low skyline. Classicism did not come into England until several decades after the Continental Renaissance. Authentic Tudor architecture tends to be extremely bulky; a sort of Late Perpendicular Gothic without the extravagant spires. Interior spaces were open, not cruciform, and ceilings have intricate fan vaults. Henry VII chapel, Westminster Abbey St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle
Stuart Architecture marks the first radical shift away from the florid, thick, grotesque Gothic style to a column-centered, simple, minimalist, and smooth Classicism. I listed this period under "Tudor" in the Poll, because both eras were transitional. Inigo Jones is the most beloved architect of this period. His facades for gothic buildings, and his new chapels, were an imitation of Roman Palladianism (100 years old by the time it came to England). Portico for the West Front of Old St. Paul's Cathedral, London (burned, 1666) St. Paul's, Covent Garden Queen's Chapel, St. James' Palace, London
Classical Architecture or English Baroque Architecture is simultaneously inherited from Continental flourish & from Roman Antiquity. It is characterized by light, airy interiors supported by pilasters (columns sunk into the walls), ornately-carved floral choir stalls, columned portico & triangular tympanum on the exterior, all unified by upward-driving vertical lines. Domes came into fashion for the first time in this period. Transparent windows completely replaced stained-glass. St. Paul's Cathedral, London, Great West Front Clock St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London St. Philip's Cathedral, Birmingham
I won't presently go into the Revival and Modernist styles, since my knowledge of them is more than feeble. I think Gothic-Revival or Neo-Gothic works tend to be extremely monumental and burgeoning, such as Keble College. Maybe if someone likes the modern style of Guildford Cathedral could post a few?
I enjoy the sober simplicity of the Anglo-saxon architecture but I'd have to go with Gothic: it's majestic without overdoing it.
Old Christendom, I personally am convinced that Gothic in all its forms "overdoes it". Of course, English Gothic at every level - especially Early Gothic - is much more balanced than its Continental cousin. You don't often find the lopsided, unfinished, asymmetrical facades characteristic of France & Germany. Do any of you have a favourite church in all of Anglican Christendom?
Oh so many to choose from! Great pictures consular, it's difficult to choose, all the styles are interesting, however probably my favourite is the byzantine Norman church, it is nicely designed yet simple and intimate too
SK, there aren't too many examples of that one in England. Since it's a mix of Arabic and Greek styles, the greatest examples are naturally in Norman Sicily (pre-A.D. 1282), such as Palermo: But that's not exactly material to our Anglican thread. If any Norman churches in ENGLAND looked like this on the inside, they were long-ago stripped of such gold and images.
Oh, looks a bit grander than the outside would have us believe then True though, we often forget all the cathedrals and medieval churches would have been painted in many colours unlike we see today.
I'm somewhere between Norman and Gothic. But being American, I can't help but give a shout out the the old country parish church...like St. Lukes in Virginia, one of the oldest surviving form the 13 colonies Or Christ Church in Maryland And if I may be so bold, my own home parish in Georgia Inside's not too shabby either... Georgia has some beautiful little churches.
Small is beautiful......Celtic chapels above holy wells (Not English!) St Clether's chapel, Cornwall St Clether exterior St Trillo's Chapel, Wales. (I believe there's Holy Communion weekly, sits 6!) St Trillo exterior There's a fine twinned towered Norman church in my Diocese which was briefly the Cathedral church. St Germanus, St Germans, East Cornwall.
Thank you so much for the contributions my friends! Lowly Layman, I love your home parish! Wow. Symphorian, an Holy Communion with 5 others... what a beautiful and intimate notion... how small and heart-warming!
One thing I'd like everyone to understand is the primary differences between interior styles. The most famous distinction between Gothic on one side, and Classical-Celtic-Norman on the other, is the proximity of the Sanctuary to the laity. In a church of A.D. 300-1000 and A.D. 1550-2000 you tend to find a uniform plan, moving from West to East: DOORS - NARTHEX - NAVE - ALTAR RAIL - CHANCEL+ALTAR These churches were often one long rectangular plan, with a semicircular Apse at the far end, for the Holy Table. The Narthex is a small lobby-area originally for the unbaptized to go during the second-half of the Holy Communion. The Nave is what we traditionally think of as the congregation: containing pews after the 1550, perhaps in the early days too. The Altar Rail, Lattice, or Chancel Rail, created a demarcation between the nave and the steps leading into the chancel. The Chancel contained the altar and quire, the place from which services were led & celebrated. ~ In a Gothic Church of A.D. 1100-1500, the elaborate style of liturgical worship was thought to require much more mystery, and architecture developed as a consequence. The general plan of an English Gothic Cathedral church is this, West to East: DOORS - NARTHEX - BAPTISTRY - NAVE - [ROOD SCREEN - QUIRE] - [PULPITUM - CHANCEL] - ALTAR - LADY CHAPEL The Narthex remained the same, though the Baptistry was slowly moved from a separate building into the Narthex. The Nave became very long, with side-naves (Transepts) built at perpendicular angles to the main nave, forming a Cross. The Rood Screen was a large carved wooden wall with a crucifixion scene atop, and doors to enter the Quire. The Quire was where the 7 prayer services of the day would be sung. Side-altars were built into the Quire with relics. The Pulpitum was a huge concrete wall separating the Quire from the Chancel. The Chancel contained the seats for the clergy, the credence tables for the cruets, patens & chalices, and the High Altar. The Lady Chapel contained an altar dedicated to Mary. It was always behind the chancel at the far east end of the church, accessed by a U-shaped ambulatory that circumvented and surrounded the Sanctuary (so laity could get to the Lady Chapel without disturbing the Quire or Chancel). Your average layperson in a Medieval cathedral could only observe the Holy Communion from his place in the nave, looking through openings in the rood screen, through the quire, and beyond the pulpitum (which was often solid). Most devotion centered upon the Lady Altar, to which they could go at any time.