THE DELIGHTS OF CHURCH CRAWLING

by

Patrick Moule
Secretary of the Dorset Historic Churches Trust

One of the things this Trust provides as part of its general activities is the honourable sport of church crawling. The Secretary, but sometimes the Treasurer as well, is approached by, as it may be, a Historical Society, a Branch of NADFAS, or, regularly now for the last four years, a local branch of The Art Fund, asking for an organised tour to give a day’s entertainment and instruction. Bob and I are both greatly assisted by our wives, who are just as knowledgeable and help to keep the flock together. Since nearly all the people can tell a round from a pointed arch it behoves us to do our homework pretty carefully when the route has first been worked out. A good scheme is to visit three churches in the morning and two in the afternoon, starting at about 10 00 and finishing at 4.00. Almost most important of all is the location of comfort stops (since we are all of a certain age), the organisation of coffee half way through the morning and tea at the end and of course above all a decent pub for lunch. The churches chosen must not only be interesting in themselves but must also have plenty of interesting and beautiful things in and about them; for getting 30 people in and out of a coach or a series of cars takes a little time and cannot be undertaken for the sake of a good font alone; and if possible there should be some kind of connexion so that one can refer backwards and forwards as one goes.

Since I like the sound of my own voice, when a party is once inside a church (having looked at the salient points outside first, sometimes in the pouring rain), I sit the party down in the nave and tell them about the church and its history and then try and draw out some particular piece of historical interest. For example, if there is a hagioscope, or squint, I have great fun debunking the stories about lepers, the sick and the like and explaining the need for priests celebrating at subsidiary altars to be able to see the priest at the parish, or high, altar to avoid elevating the Host before him – late-medieval liturgical practice is almost a closed book to most people. This year we took the Dorset Art Fund members to Purbeck, where we started with the famous Saxon church of St Martin at Wareham , with its beautiful effigy of Lawrence of Arabia. Wareham Lady St Mary is also full of interest, including a huge C12 lead font, in spite of its rather daunting 1840 nave; the ladies there were very hospitable and plied us with coffee. Studland is one of the best Norman churches in the country and Worth Matravers is not far behind. Finally Street’s French Gothic extravaganza of 1878 at Kingston was enlivened by the brilliant playing of a visiting organist on the magnificent (original equipment) organ and by tea provided by the resident organist and his wife.

The Somerset branch had a tour in SW Dorset – charming Symondsbury with its Arts and Crafts window by Lethaby and lots of vernacular wood carving; Monkton Wyld, large and grand 1847 by Carpenter, purest Ecclesiological Decorated Style, every furnishing designed to match. There they had 15 minutes on the Ecclesiologists, who however devout were not without their ludicrous aspects, or so it seems to us now – the party were pretty fazed by this but bore it with good humour. Whitchurch Canonicorum is big, grand, very refined and very odd and preserves, it is said, the relics of the saint to whom it is dedicated (St Wite or Candida) in their shrine, one of only three English churches to do so (the others are Westminster Abbey (of course!) and St Eanswythe’s at Sandwich). Netherbury gave one a chance to talk about the practice of crenellation (nothing to do with defence) and of the need in the later Middle Ages for preaching spaces; and Beaminster (lovely tea, too) has breathtaking sculpture on the tower, lots of good things in the completely restored church itself and the earliest known sculptural representation of a lawyer in a full-bottomed wig, Serjeant Strode of Parnham. It was good that nearly all these churches had at some point had grants from the Trust.

I think the parties went home exhausted (we did) but judging by the letters we received afterwards and the requests for more next year they all had a memorable time. All the Trust asks is that people should enjoy the churches and that they should make a donation to its funds for the day’s instruction and entertainment.