Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic Non-L&C FFQ: Churches in WWII England?

*waves hi to everyone* It's been awhile since I've been around. I read the noms and voted, but haven't had time to do much else L&C-wise. (I also apologize for the lack of L&C fic--my muse isn't at all interested in writing for L&C. She came back from a very long vacation to jump into a different fandom and has been pushing me quite a bit there. Maybe someday?)

But if you can put up with me coming here, this was the first place I could think of to ask for some help with details for a non-L&C drabble. I want it to be accurate as much as if it were a full-sized fic, and I realized I don't actually know this.

Basically, I need to know what sorts of churches were common around WWII England (1942-1944 range specifically), particularly somewhere in the countryside. (It doesn't exactly matter *where* in the countryside, as long as it's in England proper still--not Scotland, Cornwall, Wales, etc.)

Beyond that, I just need some architectural info on country churches. Did they have stained glass windows? Painted or stained wooden pews? It would be neat if I could pick a specific one, but I could probably just be vague about it as long as the general details are accurate for the time period and likely architecture.

Canon in this case is vague enough that I can choose the details of where in the countryside, what church, etc., but I've got the fixed date to work with, which is stumping me.

Anything anyone wants to contribute here, or point me to a useful site on historical English church architecture, would be much appreciated!

I'm sure there's people who could give you lots more info but... I believe the Church of England/Anglican Church is still the official church of England so that's always a good bet.

You can find some more info [including a bunch of links] here .

Carol

I can point you to a few books I used in grad school when I wrote one of my papers on English churches during WWII (how random):

Campbell, Louise. "Coventry Cathedral: Art and Architecture in Post-War Britain". Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.

Cobb, Gerald. "English Cathedrals: The Forgotten Centuries". London: Thames and Hudson, 1980.

Avery, R. “War and Pieces.” Canadian Geographic. 118, no. 7 (November/December 1998), 78-80.


I can't tell you what religions a lot of the churches were, but a ton used stained glass because during and post-WWII, people ran around looting the stained glass out of the bombed out churches for safekeeping and memories. Great Britain actually had to pass a law to prevent people from transporting stained glass to other countries.

Not to be the grim reaper, but something else important I suppose is good luck finding a church during WWII. Such an exorbitant number was destroyed...

JD

A lot of air raids used churches as aiming points because they generally stood out from the landscape - this Wikipedia article may help

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baedeker_Blitz

But it was mostly churches in towns and near military installations that suffered; I don't think a huge number were attacked in the country, certainly I didn't see much sign of ruined churches in the country when I was a kid in the fifties and sixties, whereas in London there was a bombed church at one end of my street, and several others in the area were destroyed. Maybe it's simply that I know my area better, and am more aware of what has happened over the years.

One thing that might affect your story is that during WW2 most church windows would be covered with blackout blinds - I'm not sure if they were opened by day, but they would certainly be covered at night, and probably criss-crossed with tape to prevent flying glass if they were shattered by an explosion. It would be gummed paper tape, not clear tape.

Doranwen

To add to Marcus's comments about churches during the war: the bells were silenced during WWII, as they were only to be rung in the event of an invasion.

Architecture: this isn't easy to answer, as this would vary according to the age of the church, the denomination, the vernacular architecture of the part of the country you are in, and -- quite probably -- the wealth of the community that built the church in the first place. Some would have had stained glass, some not.

(Bear in mind, a lot of English parish churches are old. Beautiful and old. Architecturally interestingly old. WWII is one of many, many things that will have occurred since they were built.)

Stained pews seem like a pretty good bet.

I found the following website, which might give you some ideas. The Churches Conservation Trust has some information, and a few pictures.

Also, if you go to this page you can search by architectural style / era and by part of the country.

If you find an area of the country or a church that you think might be interesting, how about using Google images to investigate further? Google Earth might be helpful, too, as lots of people post images of places of interest.

I hope that helps.

Krissie

The stained glass will work beautifully into this. I'll do some searches to see what sorts of pictures they might have had (this comes into play).

The time I'm putting this is somewhere from 1944-1946 (yes, I know I changed my mind, but on second thought it might work better with canon at that time), so I'll just place it at the 1946 end and assume WWII is over enough that the blackout tape can be removed.

Interesting note about the bells! It doesn't come into this story at all, but that's something new I've learned now.

How likely is it that a church would be open during the day/week? Could someone just walk in and sit in a pew to meditate or whatever, or did they have to get someone to unlock the doors? (I'm assuming this is a weekday not during any sort of service, perhaps an Tuesday or Thursday afternoon.)

My guess -- and it is a guess -- is that the likelihood of a church being open for visitors during the day would have been very high. My impression is that the closure of churches (because of fears of theft and vandalism) is a more recent thing, and it still isn't universal.

I'm not a church-goer, so someone else might have something more informed to say. I really don't think you have a problem having a church with an open door policy, though.

Krissie

I was kind of suspecting that myself. It's not in a downtown and in that time period there was less locking of doors and stuff, right? So I'll go with it just being open and my character being able to walk in.

Thanks so much for all the help! I've been annoyed that I got stuck on the last two drabbles to complete this set, so having this info will be most helpful to finally getting them completed.