Churches: How to Read Them (2010)

The Victorians and After

Richard Taylor discovers how, during 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. He sees how the impact of war in the 20th century 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.