Victorian restoration facts for kids
The Victorian restoration was a huge project to fix and rebuild many Church of England churches and cathedrals. This happened in England and Wales during the 1800s, when Queen Victoria was queen. It was different from how we restore old buildings today.
Many church buildings were in bad shape. Also, people wanted church services to be more exciting and colorful, like they were in medieval times. This was part of a trend called the Gothic Revival. The Church of England supported these changes. They hoped it would bring more people back to church.
The main idea was to make churches look like they did during the "Decorated" style. This style was popular between 1260 and 1360. Famous architects like George Gilbert Scott and Ewan Christian led these projects. It's thought that about 80% of all Church of England churches were changed in some way. Some had small fixes, while others were completely torn down and rebuilt.
Not everyone liked these big changes. People like John Ruskin and William Morris were against them. Their efforts led to groups like the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings being formed. Today, many people think the Victorian restoration went too far. However, it did help save some churches that might have fallen apart. It also helped rediscover some old features that had been hidden for a long time.
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Why Churches Were Restored
Several reasons led to the Victorian restoration movement.
After the English Reformation, which happened a long time before Queen Victoria, churches were mostly left alone. Only small repairs were done to keep them standing. This went on for about 250 years. Many churches and cathedrals became very run down. For example, the tall spire of Chichester Cathedral suddenly collapsed in 1861. This showed how bad the problem was.
Also, since the mid-1600s, church services had become very plain. This was due to the Puritan reforms, which focused on simple preaching and little decoration. They wanted to be very different from Catholic churches. But by the late 1700s, people became interested in medievalism and the Gothic Revival. They wanted more interesting and beautiful church services. Church leaders saw this as a chance to get more people to attend church. They hoped it would make the Church stronger and more important again. So, they pushed for huge restoration projects.
A third reason was the Industrial Revolution. Many people moved to cities for work. These cities often didn't have enough churches for everyone. For example, Stockport had nearly 34,000 people but only enough church seats for 2,500. Other religious groups, like Methodism, grew because of this shortage. To help, the government gave money to build new churches between 1818 and 1824. These were called Commissioners' churches. But many of them were built cheaply and didn't look very good. This made people want better church designs.
Similar movements happened in other parts of Europe, especially in northern countries. In France, the architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc was very involved in restoring old buildings.
Who Led the Changes?
The Cambridge Camden Society
One of the main groups pushing for church restoration was the Cambridge Camden Society (CCS). It was started in 1839 by two students from Cambridge. They were John Mason Neale and Benjamin Webb. They shared a love for Gothic church design. The group quickly became popular, growing from 8 to 180 members in its first year.
At first, the CCS just studied medieval churches. But soon, they started saying that only one style was "correct" for a church. This was the "Decorated" style, popular around 1300. They wrote about this in their journal, The Ecclesiologist. This idea fit well with the growing interest in medieval times and the Gothic Revival.
The CCS was very firm about this one "correct" style. This helped people who weren't sure what good architecture looked like anymore. The CCS said there were two ways to restore a church. You could either fix each part in its original style, or you could make the whole church match the best and purest style found there. The CCS strongly suggested the second option. Since almost every medieval church had at least a small piece of the Decorated style, like a porch or a window, they would "restore" the whole church to match it. If the oldest parts were too new, they suggested completely rebuilding the church in the "correct" style.
The Ecclesiologist said that "to restore" meant to bring back the original look of a building. They later admitted that this "restoration" might create a perfect church that never actually existed before.
Oxford Movement
Church restorations were also influenced by the Oxford Movement. This group wanted to make the sacrament of the Eucharist (communion) the most important part of church services, not the sermon. This meant moving the pulpit (where sermons are given) to the side. They also replaced old box pews with open benches. This created a clear central aisle so everyone could see the altar better. Galleries were often removed too. Another change was that a larger chancel (the area around the altar) was needed for the new rituals.
What Was Done
Because of the Cambridge Camden Society's ideas about Gothic style and the Oxford Movement's ideas about worship, a lot of "restoration" work began. Here are some numbers to show how much was done:
- Between 1835 and 1875, 3,765 new or rebuilt churches were opened.
- The busiest time was the 1860s, with over 1,000 new churches.
- More than 7,000 local churches in England and Wales were restored between 1840 and 1875. That's almost 80% of all of them!
- The number of professional architects grew by 150% between 1851 and 1871. Older architects often gave smaller restoration jobs to new architects to help them get practice.
Early restorers didn't always care much about keeping original materials like old carvings or woodwork. They focused on how the church would look after the changes. So, many good old pieces were thrown away and replaced with new ones in the chosen style. As the century went on, architects generally became more careful. This was partly because more people started speaking out against the extreme changes.
Let's look at an example: the Church of St Peter, Great Berkhamsted. In 1870–71, William Butterfield restored this church. He also designed other famous churches like All Saints, Margaret Street in London. Butterfield's work at St Peter's involved removing some original features. He even covered up old paintings on the pillars.
Major changes included:
- Raising the roof and floor of the chancel.
- Raising the roof of the south transept.
- Removing the vestry.
- Adding the south porch to the south aisle and removing its door.
- Putting in a new floor in the nave.
- Installing new oak benches.
- Replacing an older gallery.
- Putting clear windows in the clerestory (upper part of the nave walls) to let in more light.
- Extending the aisles by knocking down walls at the west end.
Outside the church, Butterfield removed old crumbling plaster from 1820. He then covered the church walls with new flint flushwork (decorative patterns made with flint and stone).
At Lichfield Cathedral, the 1700s had been a time of decay. The 15th-century library was pulled down. Most statues on the west front were removed, and the stone was covered with cement. After some early 1800s work by James Wyatt, the beautiful west front was restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott. He added many detailed carved figures of kings, queens, and saints. He used original materials when possible and made new copies when they weren't available. Scott also used medieval stonework from Wyatt's old choir screen to create seats for the clergy. A new metal screen was installed, designed by Scott. A colorful tile floor, inspired by medieval tiles, was also laid from the choir screen to the altar.
Key Architects
Famous architects like George Gilbert Scott, Ewan Christian, William Butterfield, and George Edmund Street became very keen "restorers." This wave of restoration spread across the country. By 1875, about 80% of all churches in England had been changed in some way.
In 1850, Scott wrote a book called A plea for the faithful restoration of our Ancient Churches. In it, he said it was good to keep signs of how buildings had grown and changed over time. However, in his actual work, he often didn't follow this rule. He usually removed all later changes and rebuilt the church in one early style. Sometimes, he did this based on just one small original feature.
Who Was Against It?
Not everyone agreed with the restorations. The Reverend John Louis Petit was a strong opponent from 1841 until his death in 1868. The Archaeological Society was started in 1845 by people who wanted more people to appreciate old buildings.
Even though John Ruskin generally liked new buildings in an early Gothic style, he wrote in 1849 that it was impossible "to restore anything that has ever been great or beautiful in architecture." The Society of Antiquaries of London said in 1855 that "no restoration should ever be attempted," except to protect buildings from more damage.
Later, William Morris became a very vocal opponent. He fought against the planned restoration of St John the Baptist Church, Inglesham, in the 1880s. He started the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) in 1877. This happened when he heard about plans to restore Tewkesbury Abbey by Scott. The ideas of SPAB took time to gain support. But eventually, their policy of "Protection in place of Restoration" became widely accepted. These ideas are still followed today.
Morris also wrote in 1877:
But of late years a great uprising of ecclesiastical zeal, coinciding with a great increase of study, and consequently of knowledge of medieval architecture has driven people into spending their money on these buildings, not merely with the purpose of repairing them, of keeping them safe, clean, and wind and water-tight, but also of "restoring" them to some ideal state of perfection; sweeping away if possible all signs of what has befallen them at least since the Reformation, and often since dates much earlier.
Even though Morris was against restoration, his company made a lot of money providing stained glass for many restoration projects. Some people have pointed out that his criticism only started after his company was well-established. But after 1880, following SPAB's principles, his company stopped taking stained glass jobs for historic church buildings.
Other groups also opposed the restorations. Some evangelical Protestants thought that "fancy carved work, decorative painting, tiles, and stained glass were foolish things that lead the heart astray." Others worried about the cost. They argued that for the price of one stone church with a fancy roof, two simpler brick churches could be built. They asked if worship in a plainer building would be less sincere.
Not all Catholics were in favor either. Later in his life, Cardinal Wiseman preferred Renaissance art, which was common for religious orders from Italy.
Looking Back
Today, many people view the Victorian restoration negatively. Words like "ruthless," "insensitive," and "heavy-handed" are often used to describe the work done.
In his book The Gothic Revival, Kenneth Clark wrote that the Gothic Revival produced "so little on which our eyes can rest without pain." Clark also thought that the Decorated Gothic style was the hardest of the three main Gothic styles to work with. He said the other two, Early English and Perpendicular, were much easier. Decorated Gothic was especially hard because of its complex window designs.
However, not all restoration work was bad. A good thing that came from some restorations was the discovery of old features that had been lost. For example, Anglo-Saxon carvings were found built into Norman foundations. Old wall-paintings that had been covered with whitewash were also rediscovered, like at St Albans Cathedral. It's also true that many churches would have fallen apart completely if they hadn't been restored.
Images for kids
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St Albans Abbey west front prior to restoration in 1880. A large perpendicular window and a flat roof.
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St Albans Abbey following restoration. A mix of architectural styles and a pitched roof.
See also
In Spanish: Restauración victoriana para niños
