Each week I send out a short, fresh reflection from the road – photographs, sketches, and observations from old places that still have something to teach us. What follows is a moment from that ongoing journey.
"I thought of how there are always counter-narratives, hidden voices, lost lives, other ways of being, and how it is possible to see a different, more inclusive England in the most recondite of traditions. And I cherished the thought that grand historical and political narratives might falter, just slightly, in the face of skilful interactions with things that are not us."
Helen Macdonald, Vesper Flights
Common Ground
"What each of us must do is cleave to what we find most beautiful in our human heritage - and pass it on……And to pass these precious fragments on is our mission."
Michael Ventura The Age of Endarkenment
They say you can put yourself in the way of beauty, and as I look back on my vocation as a photographer, I realise that this was a principal driver in my career.
It feels like there is a kind of aesthetic gravity at play - that I am being drawn into a celestial whirlpool of beautiful things, flying through the cosmic dust of our historic environment only to be sucked into the divine detritus that adorns our churches.
I’m not religious (although I do seek out the intangible and the spirit of things). I didn’t choose churches as a principal subject to photograph - it seems that they chose me.
It is in the detail that I find the most interest: the latch that has been lovingly crafted, or the stained glass that has been coloured to perfection. The details help me make sense of place and are often hyper-local - demonstrating the peculiar taste of a blacksmith or the artistic spirit of the incumbent.
Details like this form a counterweight to the transience of modern times and, because of their relationship with communities over the centuries, churches have become sticky entrapments for such things. Other building types hold such beauty too - but churches survive in large quantities because they have played deeply meaningful roles in their communities for centuries - celebrating life and becoming memory banks not only for those that have left us, but also for art history, typography, style and material culture.
We talk about the importance of diversity within our natural environment - and the unique and rare character of places like the salt marsh or the chalk down. Our churches are like that - nourished and informed by the wide spectrum of opinion that survives in the detail.
Madonna and Child - Inglesham, Sheela-na-Gig - Kilpeck
Over the last 20 years I’ve noticed that communities that nurture and cherish the details in their places are the most cohesive, connected, diverse and vibrant. I have also noticed that our heritage is common ground between disparate parts of our society - that people with distinct backgrounds and opinions share a cooperative spirit through the conduit of our historic environment. Through their historic value, our churches provide an opportunity for consensus- a broad church in fact.
Angel at St. Nick's, Kings Lynn - Green Man at St. David's, Wales
Yes, they were places that had a singular intention, places that were often ambiguous and blinkered in their outlook, but for me, beyond their original meaning, they harbour a complex material culture that unites.
These buildings hold clues to resolving our own woes - for they have sifted, shape-shifted, accumulated and redacted into places of convergence, of overlapping interests and mutual understanding.
From the hegemony of the Thou Shalt Not to the subversiveness of I Actually Did, our churches are a palimpsest of the human condition that has been absorbed into what remains.
Prayer Board, Tuxlith Chapel, West Sussex - Graffito, St. Mary's, Ashwell, Hertfordshire
Although they don’t represent all cultures or groups, look a little deeper and you will find that our churches demonstrate that, in spite of ourselves, we create things inspired by other cultures from every part of this planet.
Every single one of us shares a felt sense for aesthetic beauty in all its different forms and guises, and a deep-rooted wonder at the hidden whispers of people from the past. And, perhaps more important than all of this - they are places where we laugh at ourselves, where we use humour to counter-act our lofty ambition and remind us that we are flesh and bone and brothers and sisters after all.
In a world that seems transient and flaky at times (though not always) - I find weight in small things that help me make sense of a place and understand where I have come from.
It took me some time to fully understand Ventura's quotation at the top of this post, but the details showed me the way. The details, no matter how mundane, are precious fragments indeed, for they help me seek out accord and consensus and nurture a sense of hope for the future.
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Each week, this Digest offers a small pause – photographs, sketches, and reflections from historic places that still carry meaning. It’s a weekly practice of noticing, continuity, and learning to see more deeply.
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Andy Marshall
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