Welsh Journals

INTRODUCTION Accustomed as we are to the present rituals of the Church in Wales, involving the administration of Holy Communion at an altar in the chancel by a clergyman in a surplice, with the congregation standing and kneeling for different sections of the service, it is difficult to appreciate the revolution that transformed religious thought and practice in the Anglican Church during the 1830s. Services were then conducted by black-cassocked clergy from the pulpit giving 'cautious sermons in bleak churches', altars and chancels were scarcely used, buildings had fallen into decay, and the Church was in a state of apathy. In July 1833 John Keble [poet and churchman, 1792-1866] preached a sermon on national apostasy, which helped to instigate the famous Oxford Movement. At a time when any hint of symbolism was regarded as 'rank popery', this group of scholars and churchmen started to advocate a return to earlier, richer forms of worship, including the use of symbolism to stimulate the imagination. For them, a revival of the old forms of worship necessitated a return to the old-style Gothic church building. Simultaneously, the architect August Welby Northmore Pugin [1812-52] was arguing that a revival in ecclesiastical Gothic architecture could only come about if there was also a return to the old rituals that gave it meaning. At Cambridge in 1839, the Camden Society was founded with the object of promoting 'the study of Ecclesiastical Architecture and Antiquities, and the restoration of mutilated Architectural remains'; despite opposition and denunciation for popery [resulting in its dissolution and phoenix-like resurrection as the Ecclesiological Society in 1845], this was one of the most powerful influences in the Church Gothic Revival, interlinking moral and architectural rectitude. Such was its influence that now half the churches in Britain are paved with Victorian encaustic tiles. These pavements were designed to emphasise the ritual importance of the chancel and altar, so were progressively more ornate towards the east end. Attention was also paid to the designs on the individual tiles. Meticulous copies of medieval prototypes were preferred, though modern designs in keeping with the medieval spirit were acceptable, but discrimination was needed in selection of the motifs and their symbolism. For example, the VICTORIAN FLOOR TILES FROM THE PARISH CHURCHES OF THE WYE VALLEY GROUP with illustrations drawn by the author Margaret AV Gill