Pendle Hill looms over East Lancashire between the towns of Clitheroe and Nelson. With its distinctive humpback shape, visible for miles around from all directions, it is a local landmark, rising from an area of green beauty. The district is…
St Martin’s and Rupert Bear
The Venerable Bede tells us that, in 597 AD (1425 years ago in 2022), St Augustine landed on the Isle of Thanet, in Kent, with some forty companions. Their purpose was to spread the news of eternal joy in heaven…
Crowland or Croyland
Crowland, Lincolnshire, is one of those little towns that Britain does so well. It is appealing, has a couple of fascinating historic attractions (a splendid half-ruined abbey church and a unique three-way medieval bridge), at least one decent tea and…
St David’s Day
St David is the patron saint of Wales and St David’s Day is on 1 March. The problem with saints’ days is that most Britons do not believe in saints. However, they are regarded by many as occasions to celebrate…
Is this Britain’s finest Baroque church?
It may come as a surprise that what might be the finest Baroque church in Britain will be found, not in some great city, but in rural Worcestershire. This is Great Witley Church. It dates from 1735, when it replaced…
Touching the lost past of Ninekirks
It’s hard to beat soaking up the atmosphere of an elegant historic house, or imagining life being restored to the grim ruins of a once-mighty castle. But there’s also a special kind of magic getting off the well-beaten tourist track…
An introduction to Ripon Cathedral
Ripon Cathedral has such publicly ancient roots that I was surprised to learn it only got promoted to cathedral as recently as 1836. As a matter of fact, Ripon is a physical link with the earliest days of Christianity in…
A pilgrimage to Lindisfarne, the Holy Island
To visit Lindisfarne, a tidal island at the tip of north-east England, is to enter a different world. It is a world of saltwater, seabirds and saints, a world of mudflats, mead and mystery that is still revealing its secrets.…
St Leonard’s, Chapel-le-Dale
We stepped down the lane in the dappled sunlight of a still frosty winter afternoon. It has an ancient, lived-in, feel to it, does the hamlet of Chapel-le-Dale. Sitting astride a Roman road, evidence of long-vanished communities are shown on…
St Cyriac and the tour party
Had I led a better life, perhaps spending more time with saints than sinners, maybe I would have heard of St Cyriac before stumbling ignorantly into his church in Lacock. For the benefit of anyone else who has somehow managed…
Kings and carols
Every Christmas Eve, millions of people all round the world tune in to their TVs or radios to listen to carols from King’s – or ‘Nine Lessons and Carols’ – from King’s College Chapel, Cambridge. The broadcasts are an essential…
The A-Z of Christmas in Britain
A version of this feature is included in the book, ‘A Bit about Britain’s High Days and Holidays’. Of course, Christmas is Christmas and the basics are ubiquitous in any country with a Christian tradition. That said, everybody celebrates it,…
The Oxford Martyrs
Be careful where you tread; you never know what might have happened beneath your feet, long ago. A cross in the centre of Oxford’s Broad Street marks the spot where, almost 500 years before, three men were legally burnt to…
Dunstan in the East
Constantly keep your eyes open when wandering round the old City of London. Behind the steel and glass and beneath your feet are about two thousand years of history. Reminders of the past are everywhere – some obvious, others not;…