Preface

About me. For most of my life I have worked with words, first as a business journalist, then as Deputy Editor of The DOOR, a newspaper published by the Diocese of Oxford. Later I became an editor of Scripture Union Bible reading notes (which gave me useful insights into both Anglican and independent church traditions). I also spent seven fascinating years working with an NHS mental health team before unexpectedly retiring after finding I had contracted cancer, which was wonderfully and promptly dealt with at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford.

Once healed, I could start researching a project that had been buzzing around at the back of my mind for more than 20 years, ever since I discovered that non-Christians are more troubled by the proliferation of church denominations than most believers seem to be.

The project. Visit any town or city in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland and you will notice that there are many different buildings called ‘church’. Pride of place will go to the parish church with its beautiful spire or tower dominating the townscape. In the city, a huge and glorious 800-year-old cathedral, busy with tourists from all over the world, will be the focus. Walking down a side street in search of a pub or teashop, you might notice a sign to the Catholic Church and there, unexpectedly, you will find an intriguing modern building, its concrete walls cut with jewel-like stained glass windows. 

At the end of the High Street, a still lovely but smaller, traditional-looking church will be found, with a sign inviting you to join the Methodists for coffee. Later, while waiting in your car for the lights to change, you might see a little sign pointing to a ‘Friends Meeting House’. The sign is indeed pointing to a friendly-looking house, but who meets there and why? 

On a visit to your hometown you notice, as if for the first time, the United Reformed Church, and then remember that when you caught the school bus on the pavement outside, it used to be called the Presbyterian Church – why the change? On holiday in Scotland, you realise that the little cottage next to your holiday let is in fact a church; while in Wales it seems that there is an imposing chapel in every village, but many seem to be closed – why were they all built in the first place? In Ireland the well-maintained ruin of a monastic settlement dating back to the 6th century is still celebrating the recent visit of a pope! How did this remote place become so significant? Were all these different places founded by people who share the same Christian beliefs?

The process. I began my research by looking at an old copy of the Shell Guide to England because many of the best-known monuments and buildings, the ones that every tourist should visit, have links to our religious history. There are of course, the great cathedrals like York and Winchester, but also smaller buildings like John Wesley’s Methodist Chapel in London and his equally interesting West Country outpost in Bristol. Then there are towns like Boston and Great Yarmouth, the ports through which many religious exiles of the Baptist and Congregationalist persuasion fled to and from the Netherlands in the 16th and 17th centuries.

The plan. So the idea emerged for a book that would serve as both a history of Christianity in these islands, as well as a travel guide for individuals and families interested in doing something a bit different with their free time.

My intention is to focus on key turning points in the history of Christianity in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Therefore, except for the Catholic Church which claims the Apostles as its fathers and Rome as its home, I have focused on Trinitarian churches that have their origins in these islands, so there is no mention of rapidly-growing denominations like Hillsong, Vineyard or the Pentecostal movement which have their origins elsewhere.

I have visited just about every one of the recommended locations to check that there is parking, and a café or a shop in which to have a cup of tea and pick up local guidebooks and more information (apologies if the information is out of date and the chosen café has closed). In fact, travelling around and visiting places as dissimilar as a ‘Wee Free’ chapel on Skye, the Ironbridge museums in Shropshire, the Corrymeela Community in Northern Ireland and Westminster Cathedral in London has been one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life, and I must thank my husband for driving me to most of the locations mentioned in this book during the many years it has taken to gather the information. 

I am a journalist, not a historian, so when I discovered that just about every different branch of the Christian faith can be traced back to one person and to one significant place, I treated the chapters of this book as a series of interviews, the difference being that I had to use letters, books and third-hand reports instead of face-to-face interviews in order to delve into the motivations that drove people to leave the church they had grown up in to seek something new.

Where possible, each chapter has been read through by a representative of the relevant church or denomination, and permission to quote from original sources has been sought from all copyright owners where required. Any lapses, mistakes or misunderstandings will be due to my lack of attention to what I was reading or writing.