Overview

The architecture and decoration of Catholic churches and their importance as part of our heritage has gone largely undiscovered and unappreciated. This book is a celebration of 100 Catholic churches in England and Wales, with lively and informative text and stunning photography specially commissioned for the book. Each chapter is devoted to a milestone in the history of the Catholic Church since the Reformation, with a brief introduction followed by a description of each church complementing Alex Ramsay’s photographs. The churches vary enormously in scale, date and location. The small, 14th-century chapel at Rotherwas near Hereford survived centuries of official persecution and more informal terror from local anti-Catholics. The 19th-century Church of St Everilda in Yorkshire was built after Catholic Emancipation, but though off the beaten track it still hid its interior magnificence behind non-committal, blank walls. The Gothic churches of architect Joseph Hansom strike wonder into the hearts of their visitors: at Manchester’s Holy Name he contrived a space of breath-taking vastness – architecture designed to shock and awe. Early 20th-century church architects adopted a lighter – and in some cases extraordinary – approach that gave Rochdale a church with a Byzantine dome and a wall of sumptuous mosaics. All these are important, architecturally, decoratively, historically and socially, and each has an additional powerful and poignant dimension because of their remarkable stories.

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9781905624621

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Reviews

Spectacularly illustrated / This lavish picture book will be a fillip to those who both use and study this Catholic patrimony Sacred Architecture Journal Issue 14 Autumn 2008 It is beautifully produced, with stunning colour photographs, and covers an amazing range of buildings, in stylistic variation, geographical location and time span. It has fully deserved the accolades which followed its publication. / the quality of the photography by Alex Ramsey is outstanding and the richness of illustration one of the glories of the entire volume Ancient monuments Society Vol 52 2008.

'It is essentially a popularisation in the best sense, clearly written, attractively designed and finely illustrated.'

"""Spectacularly illustrated"" / ""This lavish picture book will be a fillip to those who both use and study this Catholic patrimony"" Sacred Architecture Journal Issue 14 Autumn 2008 ""It is beautifully produced, with stunning colour photographs, and covers an amazing range of buildings, in stylistic variation, geographical location and time span. It has fully deserved the accolades which followed its publication."" / ""the quality of the photography by Alex Ramsey is outstanding and the richness of illustration one of the glories of the entire volume"" Ancient monuments Society Vol 52 2008."

'It is essentially a popularisation in the best sense, clearly written, attractively designed and finely illustrated.' -- Michael Kerney

""Spectacularly illustrated"" / ""This lavish picture book will be a fillip to those who both use and study this Catholic patrimony"" Sacred Architecture Journal Issue 14 Autumn 2008 ""It is beautifully produced, with stunning colour photographs, and covers an amazing range of buildings, in stylistic variation, geographical location and time span. It has fully deserved the accolades which followed its publication."" / ""the quality of the photography by Alex Ramsey is outstanding and the richness of illustration one of the glories of the entire volume"" Ancient monuments Society Vol 52 2008.

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Author, Ludlow.

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