Forgotten Churches Exploring England's Hidden Treasures: The Sunday Times Bestseller

by Sherlock, Luke; Pioaru, Ioana

• ISBN13: 9780711294103
• ISBN10: 0711294100
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780711294110
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2025-03-25
• Publisher: Frances Lincoln
• More Book Details

Summary

Spending his weekends exploring historic churches across the idyllic English countryside – and sharing their beauty and unsung history across social media – Luke Sherlock is bringing English history and the heritage of our rural countryside to a new audience.
 
England is full of incredible churches, from small stone chapels and quiet Romanesque masterpieces, to thousand-year-old Saxon stalwarts, dramatic Gothic monuments and high Victorian treasures. These special places, often under-celebrated and overlooked, dot the English landscape but collectively tell a remarkable story of our nation.
 
Travelling to all corners of England – from the Kent marshlands to the Norfolk fens, Somerset lanes and beyond – Sherlock carefully documents these unique buildings, celebrating their histories and decoding their hidden meanings. Bringing together 70 of the most unusual, intriguing and atmospheric of England’s churches, Sherlock tells stories of craftsmanship and local community, whilst centering these buildings at the heart of our national story and revealing their forgotten secrets and cultural significance.

Author Biography

I’m Luke Sherlock, writer, pilgrim, and environmentalist with a boundless enthusiasm for heritage and art. There’s little I enjoy more than throwing on a backpack, heading off down some unknown footpath and pausing to explore a hushed, ancient church along the way. My mission is to share these journeys so we can better know, value and care for our historic landmarks and the landscapes they sit within, whilst hopefully inspiring others to find some meaning through their own discoveries.

Table of Contents

Full list of churches included in the book:

St Peter Edensor, Derbyshire
St John the Baptist Chelmorton, Derbyshire
St Mary and St Barlok Norbury, Derbyshire
St John the Baptist Tideswell, Derbyshire
All Saints Brixworth, Northamptonshire
St Martin Canterbury, Kent
St Peter-on-the-Wall Bradwell-on-Sea, Essex
St Lawrence Eyam, Derbyshire
St Mary Breamore, Hampshire
St Laurence Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire
St John the Baptist, Barnack Cambridgeshire
St John’s Chapel Tower of London
St Mary & St David Kilpeck, Herefordshire
Hospital of St Cross and Almshouse of Noble Poverty, Winchester, Hampshire
St Germans Priory St Germans, Cornwall
Dore Abbey Abbey Dore, Herefordshire
St Mary the Virgin Iffley, Oxfordshire
St Mary the Virgin West Walton, Norfolk
The Church of St Margaret Little Faringdon, Oxfordshire
Hexham Abbey Hexham, Northumberland
The Church of St Margaret of Antioch  Stoke Golding, Leicestershire
St Cuthbert Fishlake, Yorkshire
St Andrew Heckington, Lincolnshire
Collegiate Church of Holy Trinity  Tattershall, Lincolnshire
Priory Church of St Mary the Virgin  Steeple Ashton, Wiltshire
St Mary the Virgin Berkeley, Gloucestershire
St Mary the Virgin Isle Abbotts, Somerset
St Mary the Virgin Woolpit, Suffolk
St Mary Magdalene Croome D’Abitot, Worcestershire
St Mary Old Dilton, Wiltshire
St John Westminster, London
St Mary Woolnoth City of London
St James Stanstead Abbotts, Hertfordshire
St Giles Wimborne St Giles, Dorset
St Michael Duntisbourne Rouse, Gloucestershire
St Enodoc Trebetherick, Cornwall
St Senara Zennor, Cornwall
St Just St Just in Roseland, Cornwall
Watts Cemetery Chapel Compton, Surrey
St Bartholomew the Great City of London
St Peter Southease, East Sussex
St John Duxford, Cambridgeshire
St Peter Walpole St Peter, Norfolk
St Beuno Culbone, Somerset
St John the Baptist Inglesham, Wiltshire
All Saints Babworth, Nottinghamshire
Binham Priory Binham, Norfolk
St John the Baptist Burford, Oxfordshire
St Mary & All Saints Fotheringhay, Northamptonshire
Jordans Meeting House Jordans, Buckinghamshire
The Church of St Andrew Mells, Somerset
Temple Church City of London
The Church of the Holy Trinity Blythburgh, Suffolk
St Mary of the Assumption Ufford, Suffolk
St John the Baptist Plymtree, Devon
St Helen Ranworth, Norfolk
St Mary the Virgin Ewelme, Oxfordshire
St Mary the Virgin Sparham, Norfolk
St Peter & St Paul Chaldon, Surrey
St Peter Wenhaston, Suffolk
St Michael Castle Frome, Herefordshire
St Edward Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire
The Church of St Mary Fairford, Gloucestershire
St Mary the Virgin Higham, Kent
St Peter Wiggenhall St Peter, Norfolk
St John the Baptist Sutterby, Lincolnshire
All Saints Saltfleetby, Lincolnshire
All Saints Walesby, Lincolnshire
St Cuthbert Bewcastle, Cumbria
St Ninian Brougham, Cumbria
St Cyriac Lacock, Wiltshire