16
BCD Special Report on
Historic Churches
19
th annual edition
and information. Over 12,500 churches are
listed, a fact which confirms their historical
importance, and 45 per cent of Grade I listed
buildings are cathedrals and churches. They
have overseen centuries of history, recording
events and people of significance throughout
these times. They tell our national story.
Our national story
With some of the earliest Christian buildings
in Britain stretching back to the 7th century,
ancient places like Canterbury St Martin and
Bradwell Chapel shine a light on a distant
past. Often, recycled bricks and masonry
provide physical evidence of the various epochs
through which a building has survived.
But they aren’t static museums, or
mausoleums to a time gone by. Churches
evolve and change with every passing year
and each generation leaves a mark on these
buildings, resulting in a rich mix of architectural
expression which spans history. A good
example of this is seen in church art. From
simple carvings and early wall paintings, to
epic stained glass windows and masterpieces
of sculpture, churches are repositories
of popular art and culture, highlighting
social, political and economic changes.
All across England, people are exploring
church buildings. Already, around 15 million
visitors enter our churches and cathedrals
each year, excluding regular worshippers.
Now, innovative learning projects are
opening up these unique buildings to even
more people. Those who do step inside
gain access to one of the finest collections
of history and heritage in existence.
Divine Inspiration
Divine Inspiration is a long-term project
promoting churches as places for learning,
heritage, leisure activity, cultural events
and, most importantly, for sharing.
In October 2009 the project took part
in ‘Unforgettable Lessons’, organised by the
Commission for Architecture and the Built
Environment, which twinned schools with local
cultural learning organisations, like museums
and galleries, and tasked them with using the
built environment to generate learning.
The mission embraced by the Divine
Inspiration project was twofold:
•
to open pupils’ eyes to the places of worship
around them
•
to give them an enjoyable and rewarding
experience of learning outside the classroom.
Working with pupils from St Bartholomew's
Church of England School, the project first
focussed on the city of Coventry, a place which
the children associated with the boredom of
shopping with their parents, before moving on
to explore two very different churches. Through
discussion sessions and activities looking at their
immediate local area, it became obvious that
the young people found little or no imaginative
appeal in the buildings and spaces around them.
Their favourite places were modern, bright
buildings and their appreciation of the wider
world, even a few miles down the road, was
limited. Maxim, aged seven, noted that most of
the buildings in his town ‘are the same type of
houses. They all look the same.’ The children’s
local landmarks were fast-food outlets and
high street shops. Nine-year old Callum also
thought most buildings were too similar: ‘you
have to look deeply to find detail in them’.
Through the project they began visiting
and ‘discovering’ new places in Coventry city
centre. It started to change the way the young
people looked at the world around them. They
spotted and recorded places that had previously
gone unnoticed and, as the project moved into
phase two, a real buzz about buildings began
to develop, especially during the church visits.
The children were challenged to consider
‘
what makes a church a church?’ and ‘what
do places of worship represent?’ with
reference to their local area and much further
afield. The two chosen churches were very
different from each other, with contrasting
architecture, geographies and histories:
•
St John the Baptist, Berkswell, West
Midlands
is a Grade I listed Norman
church built on a Saxon site with an
impressive ancient crypt housing
8
th-century human remains. The church
is in the beautiful, peaceful village of
Berkswell.
•
St Bartholomew’s, Binley, West Midlands
is a Georgian church on the outskirts of
Coventry, dating from the 1770s. It sits
just off a busy main road linking Binley to
Coventry, located near bus stops, business
parks and modern housing estates.
The children became ‘church detectives’,
comparing and contrasting the two buildings.
Their teachers identified a range of cross-
curricular links to ensure that this wasn’t
simply a ‘religious studies’ project; Science
and Maths sat alongside English and History.
For example, activities like gravestone-
rubbing enabled the children to consider
their history studies in a real, tangible way,
while also analysing stone and metal erosion
as part of their more scientific subjects.
These visits offered the schools a great
opportunity to undertake some ‘learning
outside the classroom’ (something which
Ofsted recommends should be an integrated
part of every learner’s experience). In a
climate of reduced budgets, trips to places
of interest on the doorstep are a great
option. Nearly all churches are free of charge
to enter and, with an estimated 45,000
church buildings in the UK, there aren’t
many schools located far from a church.
After their experiences, the pupils’
attitudes towards the familiar places that
belong to their daily routines have changed
profoundly. The success of the project cannot
be underestimated. Many of the children,
knowing they would be given a warm welcome,
subsequently returned to the churches
with their families, using their new-found
confidence to show these new visitors around.
They have had their eyes opened to a world
that had previously eluded them. As eight-
year-old Kirsty put it ‘I love the area that
I live in. It’s much more interesting now’.
Cathedrals education
Recent research has shown a steady and
continuing increase in attendance levels at
regular weekly services in Church of England
cathedrals, with figures up 30 per cent since the
turn of the millennium (Cathedral Headline
Mission Statistics 2011). As Dr Bev Botting, the
head of research and statistics at the Church
of England, said: ‘These figures demonstrate
how cathedrals are very much a vibrant centre
of spiritual life in our cathedral cities’.
Educational events and school trips
account for thousands of visits per year. In
2011,
almost 300,000 children attended an
educational event in a Church of England
Primary school pupils learning what makes a church
a church (Photo: CABE/Alys Tomlinson)
Sir Christopher Wren (Stephen Spencer, an education assistant with St Paul’s Cathedral’s Education Department)
tells a class how he designed the new cathedral
