Changes in architecture, walls adorned with men and women dressed in the latest fashion for their age, epitaphs written with a greater or lesser degree of honesty, beautiful glass, carvings, paintings. Everywhere within our parish churches there are characters and stories from medieval times to the the 20th century. This course considers the unsung galleries that exist in England's parish churches. Join us in discovering and learning to recognise some of the treasures, both celebrated and hidden, to be found in villages all around us.
Course aim
To provide an introduction to the veritable galleries of art, fashion, history and of course religious change, from the medieval to the modern, that exists in our parish churches.
Do I need any particular skills or experience?
- This course is for beginners and improvers
By the end of the course I should be able to:
- To identify differing styles used in church building and use them to date parts of a church of your choice
- Locate different styles of church monuments and use various factors in their design e.g stone, decoration, etc to date
- Explain the purpose of wall paintings and list key themes to be found
- Explain why fonts are often the oldest objects within a church and use style to date from Saxon to Victorian
- Identify stone, wood or brasses effigies or memorials in a church/or churches of your choice and draw upon a variety of sources to describe the lives of those commemorated
What else do I need to know?
Nothing other than your interest in, and love of history
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