Churches I love

Moira I did a walk with a group to see all the Wren churches. Exhausting but so interesting.

fairfield on Romney Marsh, Kent, is a delight. Lovely box pews. “Improved” by the Victorians but still lovely. It’s out in a field surrounded by sheep.

not religious either but I love the church where we were married ,its a 12th century church on the banks of Loch Lomond with viking graves in the graveyard .We go back to visit every year on our anniversary .

We tend to go and look around churches wherever we are. I love church architecture and history. (I also enjoy lots of religious music and hymn singing, but that's for another thread.)

Chartres Cathedral is one of my favourites. I also loved the cathedral in Laon, France, (also a Notre-Dame) with it's amazing interior. It's Gothic but the interior is built in white stone. It's breathtakingly beautiful.

I really want to visit St Enedoc's Church, almost on the beach in Trebetherick, Cornwall, where John Betjeman is buried. That's on the to-do list.

Wow Lullydully I've lived in Birmingham all my life and have never been inside the cathedral

Manchester..The hidden gem(or St Marys which is it's official name)
Rivington chapel
and a tiny little wooden church near my aunt's in San Antonio..
(I love being alone in a church when there is no service taking place)

And others that blow your mind as they seem to challenge the history we know. Like the small Rutland Church near Eyebrooke Reservoir, in Stoke Dry- with medieval paintings from 1280, depicting St Edmund being pierced with arrows by American Indians- which seem to validate the therory that Vikings got to Newfoundland a very long time before Columbus ?!?

oh and the little Church in Devon where nearly every grave carries my OH surname- which is a very uncommon name, with its massive ancient yew trees, by the Dart.

St Matthew's Church, Jersey also known as The Glass Church isn't beautiful on the outside, but the Lalique glass throughout the interior is unique and the only Lalique commission of its type to survive. Definitely worth a visit if in the area.

I agree with Day6 about Chartres.

East Anglia has a church a minute, seemingly. So many lovely ones, large and small. For me the most beautiful is Blythburgh in Suffolk, the ‘Cathedral of the Marshes’, but some of the small, plainer ones are enchanting, too. Mileham and Wellingham in Norfolk come to mind. You never know what treasure of medieval art you may stumble on.

I’m also not religious.

janipat- I so hope to visit Jersey and Guernsey- and will take a not of the Church as I am a real admirer of Lalique's work. My mum's family owned the original of the Bacchante vase - but it had to be sold to pay for eye operations for my brother- there is a copy at the V&A. There is a Lalique Museum in Eastern France we hope to visit when return from our July visit to UK. Thanks.

The Italian Chapel in Orkney, a nissen hut decorated by Italian prisoners of war. St Michaels, Up Marden, just north of Chichester. A tiny little church. Bafreystone near Dover another incredible decorated Norman church like Kilpeck.

Barfrestone is another favourite of mine monica.

katyK yes St Phillips is well worth a visit and not too big. ( I think it's St Philips)

We always look around churches when we visit a new place but the one that stays in my mind is a little chapel on the outskirts of Keswick along a narrow country lane. It had a notice on the door that said- “please close this door to keep out straying sheep” underneath was written” only the woolly ones”.It was a very plain but peaceful place.

That’s lovely, Thorntrees.

I once spent ages in a church inNorfolk trying to catch a little bird that had flown in and was cowering under a pew. I eventually managed to get it into a box (I had emptied the box of psalters), take it outside and set it free.

I was born in the Borough, London SE1. I could see St Pauls from our front-room window. Amazing, but so sad that you now have to pay to go in there! Now live in Exeter and the cathedral here is so beautiful. However, my favourite is the little Church on the cliff between Aghia Anna and Plaka on Naxos, Cyclades, Greece. Went there lots as we lived there for a few years. So ancient and so beautiful.

Bellanonna I see you've beaten me with the mention of St Peter on the Wall in Bradwell. I find it awe-inspiring to stand inside, touch the stone walls, and think of all those thousands who have done the same down the ages.

There is another little gem in Essex, in the village of Stock - All Saints church. Full of character, with some beautiful stained glass. Well worth a visit.

Bellanonna is that the tiny church where you can see where an opening was made for carts to go through when it was used as a barn? Believe it may even be a cathedral as there is a Bishop of Bradwell. It was our traditional Christmas walk when we lived in Essex, happy memories.

Well I am Sikh by birth and an atheist by inclination but I will always remember St Margaret's Chapel inside Edinburgh Castle because to me it is everything a house of God should be. It is small, simple with stone walls and tiny plain Windows. It would probably not hold more than 6 or 8 people but there was such a feeling of calm and peace about it that I wanted to stay for hours.

Sorry my memory played me false St Margaret's Chapel seems to hold about 20 guests for weddings but it is beautiful.

Yes it's St Philips Lully I'll go in.

Purpledaffodil yes, that's the one. It was reconsecrated as a church in the early part of the last century.

Oh and St Mary the Virgin in Sompting! A wonderful church, with Saxon origins, and many additions over the centuries. Fascinating architecture and history. The unusual, square spire is England’s only example of a “Rhenish Helm”

It's just off the main road between Hastings and Worthing.

On a visit to Poland we went to the salt mines and was amazed at the church carved out of the salt in the mine. Such a beautiful place.

Jura2 is that the church in Stoke Gabriel?? We've spent many cottage holidays there by the mill pond.
The church is Norman ad has a beautiful rood screen. The large yew tree is over 1,000 years old.

Chartres Cathedral is very impressive with beautiful stained glass windows, second only to Notre Dame I would say. In 2,003 we fortunate to witness a wedding there late on a very hot August Saturday afternoon.
There is a remote chapel at Melincwrt dating from 1799, which is far better than the chapel at St Fagans ( Welsh Folk Museum), my mother, grandparents and great grandparents are buried there. It is near the Melincwrt Falls painted by Turner.