Victorian restoration
Encyclopedia
Victorian restoration is the term commonly used to refer to the widespread and extensive refurbishment and rebuilding of Church of England
churches and cathedrals that took place in England and Wales during the 19th-century reign of Queen Victoria
. It was not the same process as is understood today by the term building restoration
.
Against a background of poorly maintained church buildings; a reaction against the Puritan
ethic manifested in the Gothic Revival; and a shortage of churches where they were needed in cities, the Cambridge Camden Society
and the Oxford Movement
advocated a return to a more medieval attitude to churchgoing. The change was embraced by the Church of England which saw it as a means of reversing the decline in church attendance.
The principle was to "restore" a church to how it might have looked during the "Decorated
" style of architecture which existed between 1260 and 1360, and many famous architects such as George Gilbert Scott
and Ewan Christian
enthusiastically accepted commissions for restorations. It is estimated that around 80% of all Church of England churches were affected in some way by the movement, varying from minor changes to complete demolition and rebuilding.
Influential people like John Ruskin
and William Morris
were opposed to such large-scale restoration, and their activities eventually led to the formation of societies dedicated to building preservation, such as the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings
. In retrospect, the period of Victorian restoration has been viewed in a generally unfavourable light.
From the time of the English Reformation
onwards, apart from necessary repairs so that buildings might remain in use, and the addition of occasional internal commemorative adornments, English churches and cathedrals were subjected to little building work and only piecemeal restoration. This situation lasted for about 250 years with the fabric of many churches and cathedrals suffering from neglect. The severity of the problem was demonstrated when the spire of Chichester Cathedral
suddenly telescoped in on itself in 1861.
In addition, ever since the mid-seventeenth century Puritan
reforms which were typified by a minimum of ritual and decoration and by an unambiguous emphasis on preaching there had been an ongoing removal of any emotion or colour from English religious services as a means of distancing itself from what was seen as the excesses of Catholicism. But towards the end of the eighteenth century the burgeoning Gothic Revival and interest in medievalism
encouraged people to seek more interest in their religious services. The popularity of the Gothic Revival was seen by Church officials as a way to reverse the decline in church attendance, and thereby start to reassert the Church's power, prosperity and influence. They therefore pushed for massive restoration programs.
As a third factor, the industrial revolution had resulted in many people living in cities that had few churches to cater for their religious needs—for instance Stockport
had a population of nearly 34,000 but church seating for only 2,500. The rise in dissenter
denominations
, such as Methodism
and the Religious Society of Friends
, was seen as further evidence of this shortfall. To fulfil this need, between 1818 and 1824 the Government had granted £1.5 million for building new churches. Known as Commissioners' church
es, most of them cost only £4,000 to £5,000 each to build, and dissatisfaction with their indifferent design and cheap construction provoked a strong reaction.
(CCS), which was founded in 1839 by two Cambridge
undergraduates, John Mason Neale
and Benjamin Webb, as a club for those who shared a common interest in Gothic church design. It rapidly became popular: its membership increased from 8 to 180 in its first 12 months. Although initially a society for recording and discussing medieval church features, the members of the CCS soon began to expostulate in their journal The Ecclesiologist and particularly in their Few Words to Church-builders of 1844 that the only "correct" form for a church building was the "middle pointed" or "Decorated" style, in which churches had been built during the hundred years centred around 1300. Ecclesiology obviously struck a chord in society: it was closely linked with the ongoing interest in medievalism
and the Gothic Revival.
The CCS's firm insistence on one style being correct proved to be a beacon for those who were no longer able to judge for themselves what was "good" in architecture—the certainties of the Vitruvian
rules having lost their power during the Romantic movement
that had been in vogue since the middle of the 18th century. The CCS stated that there were two possible ways in which a church could be restored. As Kenneth Clark
put it, they said that one could "either restore each of the various alterations and additions in its own style, or restore the whole church to the best and purest style of which traces remain". The Society wholeheartedly recommended the second option and since virtually every medieval church had at least some small remnant of decorated style, maybe a porch or even just a window, the whole church would be "restored" to match it. And if the earliest portions were too late, then it was a candidate for a complete rebuild in the "correct" style.
"To restore," The Ecclesiologist declared, "is to revive the original appearance … lost by decay, accident or ill-judged alteration". They did later admit, though, that such "restoration" might create an ideal state that the building had never been in.
, which advocated moving the centre of importance in the church from preaching to the sacrament
of the Eucharist
: from the pulpit
to the altar
. Consequences of this included moving the pulpit from a more central position to the side of the church, replacing box pew
s with open pews, creating a central aisle
to give a better view of the altar, and the removal of galleries. Another consequence was that a larger chancel
was required for the associated ritual.
in the forty years up to 1875, with the most active decade being the 1860s in which there were more than 1,000 such consecrations. Over 7,000 parish churches in England and Wales — which is nearly 80% of all of them — were restored in some way between 1840 and 1875. There were 150% more people identified as professional architects in the 1871 census than in 1851 — it is known that established architects passed small restoration jobs on to their newly qualified colleagues, since such work provided good practice.
The retention of original material (carving, woodwork, etc.) tended to be of little importance to the early restorers: appearance was all, and much good old work was discarded to be replaced by modern replacement in the chosen style. Different architects had different degrees of sympathy with original material, and as the century progressed greater care was generally taken; this was at least partly as a result of the increasingly louder voices that were raised in opposition.
As an example of the type of work undertaken in one church, in 1870–71 the Church of St Peter, Great Berkhamsted
was the subject of a restoration programme by William Butterfield
, whose other works included churches such as All Saints, Margaret Street
in London. Butterfield's restoration involved the removal of some original features, including the obliteration of paintings on the pillars. The most substantial structural changes involved raising both the roof and the floor of the chancel, raising the roof of the south transept to its original pitch, removing the vestry, incorporating the south porch into the south aisle and removing the door, re-flooring the nave, installing new oak benches and replacing an earlier gallery. Butterfield also installed clear windows in the clerestory, allowing more light to enter the nave. He extended the aisles by knocking down the dividing walls of two chambers at the west end. On the exterior of the church, Butterfield removed the crumbling stucco
that had been added in 1820 and re-faced the church walls with flint
flushwork
.
At Lichfield Cathedral
, the 18th century had been a period of decay: the 15th-century library was pulled down, most of the statues on the west front were removed, and the stonework covered with Roman cement
. After some structural work early in the 19th century by James Wyatt
, the ornate west front (pictured above) was restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott
. It includes many ornate carved figures of kings, queens and saints, created from original materials where possible and new imitations and additions when the originals were not available. Wyatt's choir-screen had utilised medieval stone-work which Scott in turn used to create the clergy's seats in the sanctuary. A new metal screen by Francis Skidmore
and John Birnie Philip
to designs by Scott was installed, as was a Minton tile pavement stretching from choir screen to altar, inspired by medieval tiles found in the Choir foundations.
, Ewan Christian
, William Butterfield
and George Edmund Street
became enthusiastic "restorers" and the wave of restoration spread across the country so that by 1875 something like 80% of all churches in England had been affected in some way.
In 1850 Scott wrote a book A plea for the faithful restoration of our Ancient Churches, in which he stated that "as a general rule it is highly desirable to preserve those vestiges of the growth and history of buildings which are indicated by the various styles and irregularities of its parts". However he did not follow this principle in practice, generally sweeping away all later changes and reconstructing the church in a uniform early style, sometimes on the evidence of just one remaining early feature.
was generally in favour of new buildings in an early Gothic style, in 1849 he wrote in The Seven Lamps of Architecture
that it was not possible "to restore anything that has ever been great or beautiful in architecture". His attitude influenced the Society of Antiquaries of London, which urged in 1855 that "no restoration should ever be attempted, otherwise than ... in the sense of preservation from further injuries".
Another vociferous opponent was William Morris
who campaigned against the proposed restoration of St John the Baptist Church, Inglesham
in the 1880s and started the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings
(SPAB) in 1877 when he heard of the proposed restoration of Tewkesbury Abbey
by Scott. The principles espoused by SPAB took some time to attract support, but the policy of putting "Protection in place of Restoration" eventually took hold, and are adhered to today. Morris also wrote in 1877:
Despite his opposition, though, it is known that Morris profited greatly by his firm's provision of stained glass to many restoration projects, and it has been noted that his criticism only started after his firm was securely established as a supplier to these projects.
Further opposition came from evangelical protestants, who believed that "ornamental carved work, decorative painting, encaustic tiles, and stained glass were foolish vanities which lead the heart astray", and from others who were concerned about the cost: "For the cost of one stone church with a groined roof, or even an open timbered roof, two might be built in brick with plaster ceilings; and who could dare to say that worship in the plainer building would be less devout or sincere than that which was offered in the other?"
Not all Catholics were in favour either: late in his life Cardinal Wiseman made it clear that his preference was for Renaissance art, as might be expected of a religious order of Italian origin.
In the introduction to his book The Gothic Revival (first published in 1928), Kenneth Clark
wrote "The real reason the Gothic Revival had been neglected is that it produced so little on which our eyes can rest without pain". Clark also reckoned that Decorated Gothic was the worst of the three possible styles
that could have been adopted—the others being Early English which had "very little detail which an ordinary craftsman could not manage", and Perpendicular which was "infinitely the most adaptable of medieval styles". Clark pointed out that Decorated was the most difficult to execute, not least because of the complicated window tracery
that set it apart from the other two Gothic styles.
However, not all restoration work was purely negative: a side effect of a number of restorations was the rediscovery of long-lost features, for instance Saxon carving that had been incorporated into Norman foundations, or wall-paintings that had been whitewashed over, at St Albans Cathedral
, for instance. It is also true to say that had they not been restored many churches would have fallen into disrepair.
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
churches and cathedrals that took place in England and Wales during the 19th-century reign of Queen Victoria
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
. It was not the same process as is understood today by the term building restoration
Building restoration
Building restoration describes a particular treatment approach and philosophy within the field of architectural conservation. According the U.S...
.
Against a background of poorly maintained church buildings; a reaction against the Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
ethic manifested in the Gothic Revival; and a shortage of churches where they were needed in cities, the Cambridge Camden Society
Cambridge Camden Society
The Cambridge Camden Society, later known as the Ecclesiological Society from 1845 when it moved to London, was a learned architectural society founded in 1839 by undergraduates at Cambridge University to promote "the study of Gothic Architecture, and of Ecclesiastical Antiques." Its activities...
and the Oxford Movement
Oxford Movement
The Oxford Movement was a movement of High Church Anglicans, eventually developing into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose members were often associated with the University of Oxford, argued for the reinstatement of lost Christian traditions of faith and their inclusion into Anglican liturgy...
advocated a return to a more medieval attitude to churchgoing. The change was embraced by the Church of England which saw it as a means of reversing the decline in church attendance.
The principle was to "restore" a church to how it might have looked during the "Decorated
English Gothic architecture
English Gothic is the name of the architectural style that flourished in England from about 1180 until about 1520.-Introduction:As with the Gothic architecture of other parts of Europe, English Gothic is defined by its pointed arches, vaulted roofs, buttresses, large windows, and spires...
" style of architecture which existed between 1260 and 1360, and many famous architects such as George Gilbert Scott
George Gilbert Scott
Sir George Gilbert Scott was an English architect of the Victorian Age, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches, cathedrals and workhouses...
and Ewan Christian
Ewan Christian
Ewan Christian was a British architect. He is most notable for the restoration of Carlisle Cathedral, the alterations to Christ Church, Spitalfields in 1866, and the extension to the National Gallery that created the National Portrait Gallery. He was architect to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners...
enthusiastically accepted commissions for restorations. It is estimated that around 80% of all Church of England churches were affected in some way by the movement, varying from minor changes to complete demolition and rebuilding.
Influential people like John Ruskin
John Ruskin
John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political...
and William Morris
William Morris
William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...
were opposed to such large-scale restoration, and their activities eventually led to the formation of societies dedicated to building preservation, such as the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings
Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings
The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings was founded by William Morris, Philip Webb and J.J.Stevenson, and other notable members of the Pre Raphaelite brotherhood, in 1877, to oppose what they saw as the insensitive renovation of ancient buildings then occurring in Victorian...
. In retrospect, the period of Victorian restoration has been viewed in a generally unfavourable light.
Background
A number of factors working together led to the spate of Victorian restoration.From the time of the English Reformation
English Reformation
The English Reformation was the series of events in 16th-century England by which the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church....
onwards, apart from necessary repairs so that buildings might remain in use, and the addition of occasional internal commemorative adornments, English churches and cathedrals were subjected to little building work and only piecemeal restoration. This situation lasted for about 250 years with the fabric of many churches and cathedrals suffering from neglect. The severity of the problem was demonstrated when the spire of Chichester Cathedral
Chichester Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity, otherwise called Chichester Cathedral, is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Chichester. It is located in Chichester, in Sussex, England...
suddenly telescoped in on itself in 1861.
In addition, ever since the mid-seventeenth century Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
reforms which were typified by a minimum of ritual and decoration and by an unambiguous emphasis on preaching there had been an ongoing removal of any emotion or colour from English religious services as a means of distancing itself from what was seen as the excesses of Catholicism. But towards the end of the eighteenth century the burgeoning Gothic Revival and interest in medievalism
Medievalism
Medievalism is the system of belief and practice characteristic of the Middle Ages, or devotion to elements of that period, which has been expressed in areas such as architecture, literature, music, art, philosophy, scholarship, and various vehicles of popular culture.Since the 18th century, a...
encouraged people to seek more interest in their religious services. The popularity of the Gothic Revival was seen by Church officials as a way to reverse the decline in church attendance, and thereby start to reassert the Church's power, prosperity and influence. They therefore pushed for massive restoration programs.
As a third factor, the industrial revolution had resulted in many people living in cities that had few churches to cater for their religious needs—for instance Stockport
Stockport
Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on elevated ground southeast of Manchester city centre, at the point where the rivers Goyt and Tame join and create the River Mersey. Stockport is the largest settlement in the metropolitan borough of the same name...
had a population of nearly 34,000 but church seating for only 2,500. The rise in dissenter
Dissenter
The term dissenter , labels one who disagrees in matters of opinion, belief, etc. In the social and religious history of England and Wales, however, it refers particularly to a member of a religious body who has, for one reason or another, separated from the Established Church.Originally, the term...
denominations
Religious denomination
A religious denomination is a subgroup within a religion that operates under a common name, tradition, and identity.The term describes various Christian denominations...
, such as Methodism
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
and the Religious Society of Friends
Religious Society of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...
, was seen as further evidence of this shortfall. To fulfil this need, between 1818 and 1824 the Government had granted £1.5 million for building new churches. Known as Commissioners' church
Commissioners' church
A Commissioners' church is an Anglican church in the United Kingdom built with money voted by Parliament as a result of the Church Building Act of 1818 and 1824. They have been given a number of titles, including Commissioners' churches, Waterloo churches and Million Act churches...
es, most of them cost only £4,000 to £5,000 each to build, and dissatisfaction with their indifferent design and cheap construction provoked a strong reaction.
The Cambridge Camden Society
One of the main driving forces for the restoration of churches was the Cambridge Camden SocietyCambridge Camden Society
The Cambridge Camden Society, later known as the Ecclesiological Society from 1845 when it moved to London, was a learned architectural society founded in 1839 by undergraduates at Cambridge University to promote "the study of Gothic Architecture, and of Ecclesiastical Antiques." Its activities...
(CCS), which was founded in 1839 by two Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
undergraduates, John Mason Neale
John Mason Neale
John Mason Neale was an Anglican priest, scholar and hymn-writer.-Life:Neale was born in London, his parents being the Revd Cornelius Neale and Susanna Neale, daughter of John Mason Good...
and Benjamin Webb, as a club for those who shared a common interest in Gothic church design. It rapidly became popular: its membership increased from 8 to 180 in its first 12 months. Although initially a society for recording and discussing medieval church features, the members of the CCS soon began to expostulate in their journal The Ecclesiologist and particularly in their Few Words to Church-builders of 1844 that the only "correct" form for a church building was the "middle pointed" or "Decorated" style, in which churches had been built during the hundred years centred around 1300. Ecclesiology obviously struck a chord in society: it was closely linked with the ongoing interest in medievalism
Medievalism
Medievalism is the system of belief and practice characteristic of the Middle Ages, or devotion to elements of that period, which has been expressed in areas such as architecture, literature, music, art, philosophy, scholarship, and various vehicles of popular culture.Since the 18th century, a...
and the Gothic Revival.
The CCS's firm insistence on one style being correct proved to be a beacon for those who were no longer able to judge for themselves what was "good" in architecture—the certainties of the Vitruvian
Vitruvius
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Roman writer, architect and engineer, active in the 1st century BC. He is best known as the author of the multi-volume work De Architectura ....
rules having lost their power during the Romantic movement
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
that had been in vogue since the middle of the 18th century. The CCS stated that there were two possible ways in which a church could be restored. As Kenneth Clark
Kenneth Clark
Kenneth McKenzie Clark, Baron Clark, OM, CH, KCB, FBA was a British author, museum director, broadcaster, and one of the best-known art historians of his generation...
put it, they said that one could "either restore each of the various alterations and additions in its own style, or restore the whole church to the best and purest style of which traces remain". The Society wholeheartedly recommended the second option and since virtually every medieval church had at least some small remnant of decorated style, maybe a porch or even just a window, the whole church would be "restored" to match it. And if the earliest portions were too late, then it was a candidate for a complete rebuild in the "correct" style.
"To restore," The Ecclesiologist declared, "is to revive the original appearance … lost by decay, accident or ill-judged alteration". They did later admit, though, that such "restoration" might create an ideal state that the building had never been in.
Oxford Movement
Church restorations were also strongly influenced by the Oxford MovementOxford Movement
The Oxford Movement was a movement of High Church Anglicans, eventually developing into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose members were often associated with the University of Oxford, argued for the reinstatement of lost Christian traditions of faith and their inclusion into Anglican liturgy...
, which advocated moving the centre of importance in the church from preaching to the sacrament
Sacrament
A sacrament is a sacred rite recognized as of particular importance and significance. There are various views on the existence and meaning of such rites.-General definitions and terms:...
of the Eucharist
Eucharist
The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...
: from the pulpit
Pulpit
Pulpit is a speakers' stand in a church. In many Christian churches, there are two speakers' stands at the front of the church. Typically, the one on the left is called the pulpit...
to the altar
Altar
An altar is any structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices are made for religious purposes. Altars are usually found at shrines, and they can be located in temples, churches and other places of worship...
. Consequences of this included moving the pulpit from a more central position to the side of the church, replacing box pew
Box pew
Box pew is a type of church pew that is encased in panelling and was prevalent in England and other Protestant countries from the 16th to early 19th century.-History in England:...
s with open pews, creating a central aisle
Aisle
An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of seats on both sides or with rows of seats on one side and a wall on the other...
to give a better view of the altar, and the removal of galleries. Another consequence was that a larger chancel
Chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building...
was required for the associated ritual.
Activities
Persuaded by the Cambridge Camden Society that Decorated Gothic was the only correct style, and by the Oxford Movement's theories concerning the nature of worship, a spate of "restoration" was soon under way. Some figures give an idea of the scale. A total of 3,765 new and rebuilt churches were consecratedConsecration
Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service, usually religious. The word "consecration" literally means "to associate with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different groups...
in the forty years up to 1875, with the most active decade being the 1860s in which there were more than 1,000 such consecrations. Over 7,000 parish churches in England and Wales — which is nearly 80% of all of them — were restored in some way between 1840 and 1875. There were 150% more people identified as professional architects in the 1871 census than in 1851 — it is known that established architects passed small restoration jobs on to their newly qualified colleagues, since such work provided good practice.
The retention of original material (carving, woodwork, etc.) tended to be of little importance to the early restorers: appearance was all, and much good old work was discarded to be replaced by modern replacement in the chosen style. Different architects had different degrees of sympathy with original material, and as the century progressed greater care was generally taken; this was at least partly as a result of the increasingly louder voices that were raised in opposition.
As an example of the type of work undertaken in one church, in 1870–71 the Church of St Peter, Great Berkhamsted
Church of St Peter, Great Berkhamsted
The Parish Church of St Peter, Great Berkhamsted is a Church of England, Grade II* listed church in the town of Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, in the United Kingdom...
was the subject of a restoration programme by William Butterfield
William Butterfield
William Butterfield was a Gothic Revival architect and associated with the Oxford Movement . He is noted for his use of polychromy-Biography:...
, whose other works included churches such as All Saints, Margaret Street
All Saints, Margaret Street
All Saints, Margaret Street is an Anglican church in London built in the High Victorian Gothic style by the architect William Butterfield and completed in 1859....
in London. Butterfield's restoration involved the removal of some original features, including the obliteration of paintings on the pillars. The most substantial structural changes involved raising both the roof and the floor of the chancel, raising the roof of the south transept to its original pitch, removing the vestry, incorporating the south porch into the south aisle and removing the door, re-flooring the nave, installing new oak benches and replacing an earlier gallery. Butterfield also installed clear windows in the clerestory, allowing more light to enter the nave. He extended the aisles by knocking down the dividing walls of two chambers at the west end. On the exterior of the church, Butterfield removed the crumbling stucco
Stucco
Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...
that had been added in 1820 and re-faced the church walls with flint
Flint
Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in colour, and...
flushwork
Flushwork
-Description:In architecture, flushwork is the decorative combination on the same flat plane of flint and ashlar stone. It is characteristic of the external walls of medieval buildings, most of the survivors being churches, in parts of Southern England, but especially East Anglia...
.
At Lichfield Cathedral
Lichfield Cathedral
Lichfield Cathedral is situated in Lichfield, Staffordshire, England. It is the only medieval English cathedral with three spires. The Diocese of Lichfield covers all of Staffordshire, much of Shropshire and part of the Black Country and West Midlands...
, the 18th century had been a period of decay: the 15th-century library was pulled down, most of the statues on the west front were removed, and the stonework covered with Roman cement
Roman cement
For the architectural material actually used by the ancient Romans, see Roman concrete."Roman cement" is a substance developed by James Parker in the 1780s, and finally patented in 1796...
. After some structural work early in the 19th century by James Wyatt
James Wyatt
James Wyatt RA , was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the neoclassical style, who far outdid Adam in his work in the neo-Gothic style.-Early classical career:...
, the ornate west front (pictured above) was restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott
George Gilbert Scott
Sir George Gilbert Scott was an English architect of the Victorian Age, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches, cathedrals and workhouses...
. It includes many ornate carved figures of kings, queens and saints, created from original materials where possible and new imitations and additions when the originals were not available. Wyatt's choir-screen had utilised medieval stone-work which Scott in turn used to create the clergy's seats in the sanctuary. A new metal screen by Francis Skidmore
Francis Skidmore
Francis Alfred Skidmore was a British metalworker best known for high profile commissions including the glass and metal roof of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History , the Hereford Cathedral choir screen and the Albert Memorial in London.Skidmore was heavily influenced by Gothic...
and John Birnie Philip
John Birnie Philip
.John Birnie Philip was a notable English sculptor of the 19th century.He studied at the Government School of Design at Somerset House in London under John Rogers Herbert, and then at Herbert's own newly opened school in Maddox Street. He worked in Pugin's wood carving workshop at the Palace of...
to designs by Scott was installed, as was a Minton tile pavement stretching from choir screen to altar, inspired by medieval tiles found in the Choir foundations.
Practitioners
Famous architects like George Gilbert ScottGeorge Gilbert Scott
Sir George Gilbert Scott was an English architect of the Victorian Age, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches, cathedrals and workhouses...
, Ewan Christian
Ewan Christian
Ewan Christian was a British architect. He is most notable for the restoration of Carlisle Cathedral, the alterations to Christ Church, Spitalfields in 1866, and the extension to the National Gallery that created the National Portrait Gallery. He was architect to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners...
, William Butterfield
William Butterfield
William Butterfield was a Gothic Revival architect and associated with the Oxford Movement . He is noted for his use of polychromy-Biography:...
and George Edmund Street
George Edmund Street
George Edmund Street was an English architect, born at Woodford in Essex.- Life :Street was the third son of Thomas Street, solicitor, by his second wife, Mary Anne Millington. George went to school at Mitcham in about 1830, and later to the Camberwell collegiate school, which he left in 1839...
became enthusiastic "restorers" and the wave of restoration spread across the country so that by 1875 something like 80% of all churches in England had been affected in some way.
In 1850 Scott wrote a book A plea for the faithful restoration of our Ancient Churches, in which he stated that "as a general rule it is highly desirable to preserve those vestiges of the growth and history of buildings which are indicated by the various styles and irregularities of its parts". However he did not follow this principle in practice, generally sweeping away all later changes and reconstructing the church in a uniform early style, sometimes on the evidence of just one remaining early feature.
Opposition
There were opponents. Although John RuskinJohn Ruskin
John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political...
was generally in favour of new buildings in an early Gothic style, in 1849 he wrote in The Seven Lamps of Architecture
The Seven Lamps of Architecture
The Seven Lamps of Architecture, published in May 1849, is an extended essay written by the English art critic and theorist John Ruskin. The 'lamps' of the title are Ruskin's principles of architecture, which he later enlarged upon in the three-volume The Stones of Venice. To an extent, they...
that it was not possible "to restore anything that has ever been great or beautiful in architecture". His attitude influenced the Society of Antiquaries of London, which urged in 1855 that "no restoration should ever be attempted, otherwise than ... in the sense of preservation from further injuries".
Another vociferous opponent was William Morris
William Morris
William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...
who campaigned against the proposed restoration of St John the Baptist Church, Inglesham
St John the Baptist Church, Inglesham
St John the Baptist Church in Inglesham, Swindon, Wiltshire, England, has Anglo-Saxon origins but most of the current structure was built around 1205. Much of the church has not changed since the medieval era. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building, and is now...
in the 1880s and started the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings
Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings
The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings was founded by William Morris, Philip Webb and J.J.Stevenson, and other notable members of the Pre Raphaelite brotherhood, in 1877, to oppose what they saw as the insensitive renovation of ancient buildings then occurring in Victorian...
(SPAB) in 1877 when he heard of the proposed restoration of Tewkesbury Abbey
Tewkesbury Abbey
The Abbey of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Tewkesbury in the English county of Gloucestershire is the second largest parish church in the country and a former Benedictine monastery.-History:...
by Scott. The principles espoused by SPAB took some time to attract support, but the policy of putting "Protection in place of Restoration" eventually took hold, and are adhered to today. Morris also wrote in 1877:
Further opposition came from evangelical protestants, who believed that "ornamental carved work, decorative painting, encaustic tiles, and stained glass were foolish vanities which lead the heart astray", and from others who were concerned about the cost: "For the cost of one stone church with a groined roof, or even an open timbered roof, two might be built in brick with plaster ceilings; and who could dare to say that worship in the plainer building would be less devout or sincere than that which was offered in the other?"
Not all Catholics were in favour either: late in his life Cardinal Wiseman made it clear that his preference was for Renaissance art, as might be expected of a religious order of Italian origin.
In retrospect
From a 20th-century perspective the process of Victorian restoration has often been viewed unfavourably, with terms such as "ruthless", "insensitive" and "heavy-handed" being commonly used to describe the work done.In the introduction to his book The Gothic Revival (first published in 1928), Kenneth Clark
Kenneth Clark
Kenneth McKenzie Clark, Baron Clark, OM, CH, KCB, FBA was a British author, museum director, broadcaster, and one of the best-known art historians of his generation...
wrote "The real reason the Gothic Revival had been neglected is that it produced so little on which our eyes can rest without pain". Clark also reckoned that Decorated Gothic was the worst of the three possible styles
English Gothic architecture
English Gothic is the name of the architectural style that flourished in England from about 1180 until about 1520.-Introduction:As with the Gothic architecture of other parts of Europe, English Gothic is defined by its pointed arches, vaulted roofs, buttresses, large windows, and spires...
that could have been adopted—the others being Early English which had "very little detail which an ordinary craftsman could not manage", and Perpendicular which was "infinitely the most adaptable of medieval styles". Clark pointed out that Decorated was the most difficult to execute, not least because of the complicated window tracery
Tracery
In architecture, Tracery is the stonework elements that support the glass in a Gothic window. The term probably derives from the 'tracing floors' on which the complex patterns of late Gothic windows were laid out.-Plate tracery:...
that set it apart from the other two Gothic styles.
However, not all restoration work was purely negative: a side effect of a number of restorations was the rediscovery of long-lost features, for instance Saxon carving that had been incorporated into Norman foundations, or wall-paintings that had been whitewashed over, at St Albans Cathedral
St Albans Cathedral
St Albans Cathedral is a Church of England cathedral church at St Albans, England. At , its nave is the longest of any cathedral in England...
, for instance. It is also true to say that had they not been restored many churches would have fallen into disrepair.