Individual churches and groups of churches, with a few sites on particular subjects

Added May 2008

Brian Curtis's collection of photos of churches and chapels in Oxfordshire - the inclusion of chapels making this unusual in this sort of collection. To the left, Banbury Baptist church, a fine frontage converted  in a peculiarly insensitive way to a shop. The image is borrowed from the site, and is copyright

Added March 2008

Mark Collins's collection of photos of churches, with particularly good coverage of East Sussex. Here is the mission house at Barcombe in East Sussex. The image is borrowed from the site, and is copyright

Added January 2008

Sally Lloyd's collection of photos of churches, mainly on the Welsh border country. Interiors and exteriors. Here is Capel-y-Fin, in Breconshire. The image is borrowed from the site, and is copyright

Added December 2007

Three ancient wooden churches of Maramures, Romania - these are panoramic interior views, so you will need broadband. Also on this site, a range of synagogues of Europe and North America - click here. The image is borrowed from the site, and is copyright

Added November 2007

The church at Little Gidding, a remote and magical place, made famous by T. S. Eliot who used it as the title for his final poem. The image is borrowed from the site, and is copyright

Added September 2007

The famous Saxon chapel of St Laurence, Bradford-on-Avon. This site presents the evidence for its original appearance, together with reconstructions, as in the image to the left. The image is borrowed from the site, and is copyright

Added August 2007

Kempe in Cumbria - nearly twenty places where the work of the great Victorian stained glass artist and decorator may be found. The image is borrowed from the site, and is copyright

Added July 2007

Augsburg churches, a collection of exterior views of churches (kirchen) in this German city. Plus the sound of their bells. Plus views of their Christmas cribs (krippen). The image is borrowed from the site, and is copyright

 

Added June 2007

Alderminster churchyard, Warwickshire, one of a number of churchyards taking part in the Living Churchyards and Cemetery Project to encourage wildlife. Links to similar sites can be found on the diocese of Chichester site. The image is borrowed from the site, and is copyright

 

Added May 2007

The new Lutheran church, Amsterdam, one of a large number of architecturally significant churches listed on Great Buildings website. There is good coverage of modern churches. The image is borrowed from the site, and is copyright

 

Added March 2007

This is a photograph of the London church of St Nicholas, Cole Abbey in London, showing bomb damage. It was rebuilt after the World War II, and is now to be converted to a national centre for religious education. The site has a brief history and a number of interesting photographs. The image is borrowed from the site, and is copyright

 

Added February 2007

Dorset churches, from the website of the Dorset Historic Churches Trust. This is the roof at Maiden Newton. Many churches are illustrated, and there is a brief description of each building. There are a good number of interior photos. However the photos are rather small. The image is borrowed from the site, and is copyright

 

Added January 2007

	The green man at Beccles, Norfolk, one of more than 150 entries featured in a site devoted to the green men of East Anglia. The image is borrowed from the site, and is copyright
	Churches in Dumfries and Galloway. Pictures of the exteriors of these churches in Scotland, and their graveyards. The image is borrowed from the site, and is copyright.

 

Added 2006

	Aidan Semmen's new wodewose site, concentrating on the imagery of Suffolk churches. Informed, readable text (no New Age flummery), and some good photographs. What is a wodewose? - click on the image and find out  . . . The image is borrowed from the site, and is copyright
	Roof angels of the East Anglian churches. The site consists of a downloadable e-book (in pdf format) with an introduction and gazetteer. The image is borrowed from the site, and is copyright.

	The website of St Mary's, Wellingborough, the masterpiece of church architect Sir Ninian Comper. Some useful articles on the site and a gallery of pictures (choose 'gallery' from the menu on the left hand side of the page). The image is borrowed from the site, and is copyright
	Wendy Parkinson's collection of photographs of Lincolnshire churches. The images are in several bunches, each bunch in alphabetical order, so finding a particular church can take a few moments. All external images. The image is borrowed from the site, and is copyright.

A collection of black and white photographs of various types of architecture (byzantine, romanesque, etc). Slightly clunky site, but a good collection of images. (Seems to work most straightforwardly if you use the 'location' index.) The image is borrowed from the site, and is copyright.

Duncan and Mandy Ball's site of Wiltshire churches. A huge number of images, tens per church, both inside and out. Short captions to each (but Pevsner can expand). A growing and valuable resource. The images are available in high resolution. The one shown here is the coat of arms at Potterne church -  click here if you want to see it in full detail (700k). The image is borrowed from the site, and is copyright.

The interior of St Andrew's, Deal, Kent from a 1905 postcard. This is one of many such old postcards of interiors of Kent churches gradually being added to John Vigar's site of interiors of Kent churches, It also includes recent interior images by John Salmon. The site is unusual - and useful - in concentrating on interiors, and also valuably summarises the information from the 1851 church census. The image is borrowed from the site, and is copyright.

St Margaret's church, Burnham Norton, Norfolk, one of nearly 5,000 external images of churches on Steve Bulman's website where he is attempting to collect an external image of every church in Great Britain and Ireland. The image is borrowed from the site, and is copyright.

 

Added late 2005

The interior of Thame Roman Catholic Church, Oxfordshire. From John Ward's collection of Oxfordshire churches - an interior and exterior view of every church.

A green man at Cercles Church, France. This site explores some French green men, putting them into European context.

George Plunkett's collection of pre- and post-war photographs of Norwich churches and other buildings. This link takes you to the extra-mural churches, outside the city centre. For his home page, and a wider selection of buildings, click here. Thanks to Churchcrawler discussion group for alerting us to this site. (To join, go to Churchcrawler website, scroll to near the bottom of the page.)

The smallest church in the world (or the USA) at Oneida, shown in the picture, or click here. And here is a collection of the smallest churches in America. And while we're at it, here is a small church in Wolverhampton, another in Argentina (photo looks doctored), and a pretty small Irish one. (Thanks to Ship of Fools forum for the latter ones. The picture is copyright, www.shipoffools.com)

  

Added before September 2005

Australia and New Zealand

St Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin, New Zealand  Built in the late nineteenth century. The site has both original plans and drawings, and recent photographs (some of the photos are buried in the website - go to 'building', then scroll to the bottom of the page for further choices). Added May 2005

Australasian Churches. External views of a good selection of churches.

Churches of Sydney, Australia  A simple site, with seven churches and a few pictures of each church. But gives an idea of what awaits you (including a church designed by a convict who resumed his profession of architect on arrival).

St Matthew's Church, Albury, New South Wales. Interesting study, including historic photographs, of an 1850s church built to Camdenian principles.

Churches of the Totma region, North Russia Scholarly article on this group of churches.

The churches of St Petersburg  (The Russian St Petersburg, not the Floridan one). A collection of external images, with brief text. Added June 2005.

Christ Church, Irvington, Virginia. An important well-preserved early Georgian church in Virginia. Added May 2005.

Shadyside Church Pittsburghn An interesting website about the neo-Romanesque Shadyside Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh. The site was created by one of the winners of our 125th anniversary essay competitione, Tim Engelman - this is his home church. Added March 2005.

Early Gothic revival churches in America by Frank Wills. Thanks to Paul Whitehouse for suggesting this set of links.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Wyandotte, Michigan. Interesting stained glass from the turn of the century.

The 97 Churches of Kentucky's Transylvania Presbytery Photos of the exteriors of a group of churches in Kentucky. A mix of the good, the bad, the ugly - and the surprising. Not often that you get the opportunity to compare styles and development across one homogenous denomination at one quick sitting.

Heinz Memorial Chapel, University of Pittsburgh. Professionally designed site about the chapel, completed in 1938 in the French Gothic style.

Churches of Buenos Aires. Eva Carbonell's collection of photos and description of churches in and around the Argentinian capital. Lots of photos, including interiors. Just what the net is for.

Santos in Oaxaca's (Mexico) Ancient Churches A scholarly illustrated catalogue and study of these sixteenth century statues, originally imported from Spain, then made locally.

Historic churches of Linn County, Iowa. Evocative images of churches and congregations in fourteen churches dating from the mid nineteenth century.

Interiors of recent American Catholic churches, classified by plan-type The church of St John the Baptist,. Costa Mesa, California is planning to rebuild its church. As part of this project, they are studying the interior arrangements of other recent Catholic churches. This page of their site contains (June 2001) photographs of, or links to, some fifteen modern Catholic church interiors, organised by plan-type, providing an unusual opportunity to survey a recent of set of American Catholic interior arrangements.

Mexican monasteries, missions and other churches, and a clickable map of Mexico's fortress monasteries. We wondered whether to put this site up, as it is in many ways frustrating - not particularly good photographs, and patchy coverage. But it does give the flavour of churches in the region.

 St. Gregory Nyssan Church in San Francisco The parish's recently completed church building was designed specifically to accommodate the congregation's (possibly unique) liturgical practices.

 Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple. The famous church of the famous architect. See it for yourself - very professional site, well-written and illustrated.

 The Californian Missions at the California Museum of Photography. This is one of many sites about the 21 Californian missions, sent to convert the native Americans some 200 years ago. Archival photographs, a map, and an overview essay will help you decide if you want to find out more. If so, there is an excellent series of links on this page of the Californian Mission Studies Association.

 Churches of Barbados. A simple site, listing about a dozen churches with very brief historical notes and an external view of the church.

St Mark's Church, Philadelphia.  First built in 1849, based on designs provided by the Ecclesiological Society. This is a well-written history of the church as a worshipping community, linking it to developments in the building, with use of archival photographs. There is no skirting over the issues faced by emigration to the suburbs. To get good value, you need to read this site, not scan it.

 Cincinatti Churches. A brave attempt to describe all the churches of this town. Somewhat short of images, but an interesting oveview of one and a half centuries of church building.

 St John Cantius, Chicago Illinois. Ornate Roman Catholic Church of the 1890s, built for the Polish community. Glance through the parish history first (under 'information'), then take the 'cyber-tour' (slightly over-the-top name for photographs) under 'art and culture'.

The earliest Ukrainian Orthodox church in Canada. Built in 1899, it lies near Gardenton, Manitoba. Its roots are obvious. Sadly, no interior photographs.

Our Lady of the Atonement  Church built in Texas in 1986 to resemble a medieval English church. This church is the founding parish for the Anglican use liturgy within the Roman Catholic church.

Groth & Smies projects. Recent church projects of a Wisonsin architectural practice. Comments on the buildings provide useful insights into the factors influencing church design at the end of the twentieth century.

St John's Episcopal Church, CT, USA. Good collection of English Victorian stained glass by such luminaries as Powell, Kempe, Hardman, Clayton & Bell.

Mission churches of the Sonoran Desert Fascinating photos and introduction to the churches on the Mexico / Arizona border.

Boston Avenue United Methodist church  Extraordinary art-deco church in Tulsa, USA.

Huntsville, Alabama, St Mary of the Visitation  Neo-romanesque. Virtual reality internal tour, and a varied collection of photographs.

The 'Little Church', New York. (The Church of the Transfiguration.) Important Episcopal church, founded in 1848 to fulfil the ideals of the Oxford Movement.. Take the 'walk round the church' (good, but slow-loading photos). Chancel of 1880-81 by Withers (English architect).

Medieval work in New York. Includes churches in the medieval style.

St Stephen's church.  St James the Less.  Two mid-Victorian churches, one in Texas, one in Canada, both deliberately based on the same medieval English model, St Michael, Long Stanton, Cambridgeshire.

Guelph, Canada. An interesting paper on some Gothic Revival churches in this Canadian town.

Philippine churches Rather small photos, but still a good introduction to these interesting churches.

Churches in Iran. A short series of pictures, very evocative, and leaving you wanting to know more. When you get to the opening page, click on the little arrows at the bottom of the picture.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Includes historic photographs. Detailed, so rather slow loading, but worth it.

Churches of Jerusalem. Excellent photographs from a recently published book, with informed commentary and some practical tourist notes.

Churches in the Soke of Peterborough. A growing number of churches, with photos and personal commentary - a selection from the author's CD ROM collection. Added April 2004.

Churches in Cambridgeshire. Photographs (including interiors - hooray!) and brief personal commentary. Added April 2004

City of London Churches Varying coverage, but a useful gallery, photographed with affection. Added July 2003.

Stained glass photography. A site marketing fine photographs of stained glass. They have posted a good number of photographs onto their site and are planning on adding more -  click on 'Designers Galleries' to see work by Tiffany, William Morris (lots), Charles Connick, Charles Kempe and others. Added July 2003.

Little Gidding Church. A church made famous first by the Ferrar family in the 1630s, then by the novel John Inglesant in the 1880s, then by T. S. Eliot in his poem of the name. The church itself contains fascinating relics of the 1630s, and is also a fine example of sensitive restoration in the 1850s, very early for such an act of kindness. Added June 2003

Maps of open and locked churches in the UK. Useful maps for planning a journey and to avoid disappointment. Click on 'Advisories'. Added March 2003.

Church monuments in Sussex and elsewhere A trial database of church funeral monuments in Sussex and elsewhere - images and description. Added March 2003.

All Saints, York Fine medieval glass, and a report of the performance of a medieval mass in April 2002. Added February 2003.

Chapel of St Salvator, St Andrew's University, Scotland Late medieval chapel, with an interesting collection of glass. Scholarly site, with slightly dark pictures. Includes an essay on Strachan's unfulfilled glazing scheme.

Norfolk County Council Round Towered Churches Project. Experimental rebuild of a flint round tower, in the style, and by the methods, of the many early ones in East Anglia.

Leighton Bromsgrove. An interesting attempt to link George Herbert's poem 'The Temple' to his church at Leighton Bromsgrove. Some pictures and a lot of text.

Two churches of Alexander 'Greek' Thomson. Thomson was an important Glasgow architect of the nineteenth century. This site presents computer-aided coloured drawings of an important church of his destroyed in 1944. The images are extremely interesting; but this is a frustrating site to use, so be patient - hint, first press on 'catalogue', then use the 'categories' button top left, select 'churches' in the drop down lists, and you're away.

Scottish stained glass. A master list, created by Rona Moody. No pictures.

Buildings, mainly churches, in a number of English counties Allan Soedring's personal photo collection, with a strong weighting towards Romanesque architecture. What marks this out is the good number of photographs of each church, including internal photographs - so often missing from these collections. Adding Pevsner's comments alongside each photo is useful to, to identify the what is being looked at.

Nonconformist chapels of Shropshire    A photograph and brief text for many of the nonconformist chapels of this western county.

Anglo Saxon Church at Wichamstow An imaginary place. Lovely site, describing a typical village in Anglo-Saxon times.

Churches in Southwark    The diocesan website. Each church, whether or architecturally important or not, has an internal and external photo, and brief description. A model of its kind.

The Old Church, Govan, Scotland. Incomplete but rich site, with serious articles on the church and its important sculptures.

Methodist Chapels in the Isle of Man. More than one hundred chapels, with photos, archival illustrations, and documentary evidence

Long Melford, Suffolk. Very full set of photographs of this large and famous church, with brief  sociological interpretation.

 Burne-Jones glass at St Mary the Virgin, Speldhurst, Kent. Well-constructed site, showing Burne-Jones's splendid glass. High-resolution monitor recommended for maximum pleasure. Intelligent file-sizes, so reasonably fast-loading, and good coverage of this lovely glass.

St Peter's Nottingham A thorough description of this town church, which has undergone many changes through the centuries. The site also raises interesting questions about the right way to do church guides on the web - here the printed guide is obviously the source - this provides all the information needed, and stops site construction from taking for ever (most of us have commitments to real people, not just cyberspace) but means that some of the medium's strengths are not being used.

St Margaret's, Kings Lynn. Very useful photographic archive, including images from nineteenth-century histories of the building.

Three English Abbeys - a glimpse inside the working life of enclosed institutions. Parkminster Charterhouse, Horsham, Sussex; |  St Michael's Abbey, Farnborough, Surrey;  |  Tyburn Convent, London

Thomas Paisley church Excellent site describing the Thomas Coats Memorial Church, Paisley, Scotland. Vast late 19th century building.

St Michael’s church, Inverness, Scotland Work by Sir Ninian Comper (illustrations rather small).

Thruxton Church. Small medieval church in Hampshire, restored last century, with 'much [of interest] in the furnishings' (Pevsner). Medieval monuments, Victorian glass and other furnishings. A model website, with good pictures.

Sompting Church. A very important Anglo-Saxon church. Straightforward site, more pictures promised later. This site emphasises the power of the web - books on church architecture usually only have room for one or two pictures, here are several, showing the famous tower from several angles. Here is another site, with further pictures, particularly of the interior.

Christchurch Priory, Dorset  Fine medieval abbey church. Simple, straightforward site, with some interesting photographs of this wonderful place.

Wymondham Abbey. Remains of a large abbey, including work by Sir Ninian Comper.

Bristol churches. Photo tour of the remaining churches.

Phil Draper's church architecture page (Churchcrawler) Phil Draper's page specialises in church architecture, with a range of material. He has further material on a separate page: Phil Draper's page of links.

Medieval Church Architecture Site with links to short, illustrated articles on some Saxon churches.

 St Paul's Cathedral. Durham Cathedral. Two English Cathedrals. The site for Durham is well laid out and easy to navigate. That for St Paul's requires Quick Time VR (a video program) which you can download.

Dare say we've missed some - send us an e-mail.
Quality and coverage varies.
Two particularly recommended sites are for Suffolk, Simon's Suffolk Churches (lively, personal views) and the Isle of Man (well-referenced historical information, thoughtful).
Sites in alphabetical order of county, with more general collections at end. Most comments as at January 2000.

Richard's church album Views of many churches in a number of counties.
Welsh churches  Not many of them, but nice pictures and some detail.
 
 

Vic Freund's collection of German churches We don't have much on German churches on this links page. This has a selection of churches and includes photos of the interiors, which is helpful - click on the photo montage to select an individual picture. Added March 2005

Churches of the Jura  Informal, chatty site. Makes you want to get on your bike . . .Added June 2004

Early Flemish altarpieces. One of the tours in the excellent Web Gallery of Art. Added May 2003

Romanian World Heritage Churches. Photos and text of some rather special buildings. And here is another site, with some well-informed background articles on some of these churches, and an article on the Northern Moldavian exterior wall-paintings. Added April 2003

Churches of Rome Chris Nyborg's thorough, careful and well-organised guide to the churches of Rome. Interesting and useful.

Orthodox Cathedrals and Churches of St Petersburg A good collection of external photographs, typically three per church. Short descriptions of each church.

Churches of Italy. Bill Thayer's personal odyssey around Italian churches, many of them smaller and lesser known. Many, many photographs, spiced with a personal diary of his travels and explorations.

Churches of Kotor. Kotor, a port, is the oldest town in Montenegro (within what was previously South Yugoslavia). This site has a scholarly text alongside recent photographs of each church.

Churches of Florence. Guide-book style, but a useful reference. Includes some internal photographs.

Romanesque art in Segovia (Spain) and Romanesque art in Spain. Both sites written in Spanish.

Samogitian wooden churches Samogitia now forms part of Lithuania. This is a simple site, in slightly fractured English, and the photographs are not particularly good, but it provides a short introduction and context

 Icelandic Churches Many photos of these typically rather small churches.

 Medieval stained glass windows from Esslingen, Germany. Described as an internet exhbition, following the recent restoration. This is well-explained, though the glass feels somewhat contextless, and you are relentlessly guided from exhibit to exhibit by next/previous buttons - you cannot pick your way around.

 Istanbul Churches. A scholarly site, but well-laid out, readable, and with a good selection of historical and present-day images. Deals with about twenty of the sixty churches.

 Churches of Rome. One page per church, typically with one or two images. Brisk, well-informed, accounts of their history. Quality journalism.

Norwegian Stave Churches. A quick whizz through these wooden churches. An exterior picture of each church. Good for a quick overview.

Paris Churches. Not immediately obvious how to work this site, but then you realise that there are several views of each church, and you can select them from a master image on the left of the page. No commentary, but useful for reference.

Danish wall paintings. Excellent illustrated catalogue of Danish ecclesiastical wall paintings. Well worth browsing.

Cork Architecture Tour of some of Cork's interesting buildings, including a number of churches. Single photos of each church, with brief notes.

Roman Catacombs Good introduction with images.

Spanish Virgin Marys. Photos of images of the Virgin Mary. Mix of fine art and mass production. With sound clips.

Amiens web page Very slow loading site of the Amiens Cathedral project. Some stunning images, including computer generated graphics.
 

 Architecture world wide Collection of cathedral, monastery and parish church sites worldwide.