Discovering Abbeys and Priories

Geoffrey N. Wright £7.99 £4.99 *special price until 31.1.08
978 0 7478 0589 2 (Handbook 57) 128 pp, colour and b/w ills

Abbeys and priories are both types of monastery, and the author traces the history of monasteries in Britain from Anglo-Saxon times to the Dissolution under Henry VIII. He describes the different monastic orders, the running of the monasteries and the daily life of the monks and nuns, the layout of monastic buildings, the influence of the religious houses on life in medieval times and their effect on the landscape, all with references to examples accessible to the public. This new edition has been enlarged into the ‘Discovering Handbook’ series and is fully illustrated in colour.

Discovering Bells and Bellringing

John Camp £4.99 978 0 7478 0326 3 (Db 29) 64 pp, 27 ills

One unique aspect of the British countryside is the sound of church bells being rung. Most countries have bells that are tolled and some have mechanical carillons, but only in Britain is change-ringing, or the ringing of bells in special sequences, so widely practised. Bellringing, which takes place regularly in some six thousand church towers, is regarded by non-ringers as something of a mystique, but in this book John Camp explains for the layman and the beginner what change-ringing is all about, why it is unique to Britain, and how it was developed. He includes much fascinating information – on famous bells and towers, inscriptions, peal boards and ringers’ rules, ringers versus clergy, and a glossary of ringing terms.

The late John Camp first became interested in ringing in the 1950s at Amersham, Buckinghamshire. He contributed many articles on the subject to magazines and periodicals. He was a historical writer and the author of fourteen books. This fourth edition has been revised and updated by his son, the Reverend John Camp.

Discovering Cathedrals

David Pepin £8.99 978 0 7478 0597 7 (Handbook 112) 176 pp, colour and b/w ills.

There are forty-eight Anglican cathedrals in England and Wales. Some of them are ancient places of worship, rich in history and of grand proportions; others are more recent structures of the best of contemporary craftsmanship. This book endeavours to introduce the reader to this rich inheritance in Britain’s cathedrals, which have been dubbed the flagships and shop windows of our Christian heritage.
There are chapters on the major cathedral-building periods and descriptions of all forty-eight English and Welsh Anglican cathedrals. Roman Catholic cathedrals are also briefly described, but those of Westminster and Liverpool are more fully covered. The author gives brief descriptions of the ancient Scottish cathedrals, now mainly ruinous, and lists the cathedrals of the Episcopal and Roman Catholic churches in Scotland.

David Pepin is a retired primary school teacher and a local preacher in the Methodist Church.

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Discovering Church Architecture

Mark Child £4.50 978 0 7478 0173 1 (Db 214) 64 pp, 300 ills.

In most towns and villages the parish church is the oldest and the most interesting building. No two churches are quite alike; each one is a unique work of art, worth visiting for its beauty and character and its fittings as well as for the special atmosphere of peace and holiness that all churches seem to possess. More people than ever are visiting churches, but they are often baffled by the architectural and technical terms that fill guide books. This book helps to break down the mystique that surrounds ecclesiastical architecture. It is a dictionary explaining in simple language over 600 of the terms that are likely to be encountered on a visit to a church and is illustrated with more than 300 drawings.

Mark Child is a researcher, writer and former reference librarian. Other titles for Shire by this author are: