Churches: How to Read Them - The Victorians and After

Richard Taylor discovers how, at the height of the industrial revolution, medieval imagery and ritual make a surprise return to Victorian places of worship and plunge the Anglican Church into conflict. Richard retraces the controversy surrounding this Oxford Movement of Anglo-Catholics and explores their finest churches, showing how some of its most fervent supporters, including William Morris, had a change of heart about the radical restructuring that it brought to ancient buildings. But the 20th century would bring even more powerful changes. Richard sees how the impact of war is reflected on imagery in our churches and how the First World War brought a return to another medieval practice - the commemoration of the dead. He visits a 21st century church that looks more like a rock venue and he finally finds the perfect place to reflect on what he has learned from his reading of Britain's churches.