Betjeman S Best British Churches

A beautiful and practical up-to-date guide to over two thousand of Britain’s best parish churches.

First published in 1958, the Collins Guide to English Parish Churches, edited by John Betjeman, won its way into the hearts of all those who love the churches of England and Wales.

The best-loved of English poets, John Betjeman (1906-1984) was also a great champion of British heritage and his legacy lives on, not just in his poetry, but in his diaries, broadcasts, and letters. He famously campaigned to save many church buildings, and his work encouraged a greater appreciation of overlooked Victorian churches and architects. Illustrated with black and white photographs and accompanied by Glancey's amusing editorial notes, this is a beautiful book for enthusiasts of Betjeman, and people similarly passionate about conservation and restoration.

Before the Fire of London in 1666 there were 97 parish churches in the City of London. 51 were rebuilt by Christoper Wren and new ones were built in the 18th and 19th centuries.

This work brings together John Betjeman's poems and prose and Paul Hogarth's paintings about the Church. Together, they demonstrate Betjeman's intimate knowledge of and love for the Church, both High and Low, and also his joy in the comedies and the small details of Church life.

Heraldic devices first appeared on ceramics in Western Europe from the sixteenth century onwards; however, it was not until the 1760s that British ceramic manufactories began executing commissions for services displaying heraldic devices for the gentry. This book explores the rise of the new gentry class and the market for armorial services through the case study of the Pendock Barry service. The case study is presented from three angles. It looks at Pendock Neale Barry (1757–1833) who commissioned the service, then considers the evidence for attributing the service to the Derby factory during the period 1805–1810, and finally looks at the evidence supporting an attribution of the decoration to Billingsley. The case study sets out a novel approach to understanding heraldic devices on ceramics by bringing together the disciplines of detailed genealogical research, cultural knowledge, and chemical analytical compositional data. This multidisciplinary approach enables the armorial services to be considered and understood through the lens of heritage, culture, and science.