A Romantick, Holy Place - The Old Church of St Boniface at Bonchurch, Isle of Wight
During the early Victorian era there was scant respect for old churches, and the fabric of many was allowed to deteriorate. The walls were damp, ivy invaded the mortar and prised apart the stones, and slates fell from the roofs during storms, leaving the rafters exposed to the skies. The churchyard paths were often impassable because of the invading ranks of stiff nettles, and many old neglected headstones and monuments slumped and toppled.

In some unlucky villages 'restorers' were called in. Their remedies were invariably worse than the disease they had come to treat: they removed the patina of age, ripped up old stone floors and replaced them with brightly-coloured industrial tiles, demolished arcades to raise roofs or to create further aisles, and installed stained glass bought from a jobber's pattern book. They saved their direst deeds for the chancel, for the fashion was for garish decoration, and the plain old stones were not considered holy enough.



Bonchurch on the Isle of Wight is a strikingly picturesque village between the sea and a steep down smothered with deep green trees (see the Victorian engraved illustration below and in the 'Churches and Religion' category on this website). Dickens stayed close by at Winterbourne in 1849 and praised the landscape fulsomely: 'There are views which are only equalled on the Genoese shore ... the variety of walks is extraordinary'. From the early 19th century Bonchurch was highly fashionable with well-to-do visitors, and it expanded quickly, with villas marching relentlessly over the down.

Courtesy of The Francis Frith Collection

 

Country church at Bonchurch, Isle of Wight 

 

 

Comments (0)add comment

Write comment

busy