Publication Review

This guide is more than a bare account of the design, construction and decoration of Crockenhill Parish Church. It explains why, when English villages are commonly graced by churches of great antiquity, Crockenhill's church dates from the early 1850s and it adds an interesting spice of historical detail to its description of the building. It might be thought that a small church built in the middle of the nineteenth century would be prosaically dull but All Souls has an engaging charm. In its small compass there are, for example, fine stained glass windows, an impressive reredos and imaginative ironwork by local artisans who provided such ordinary necessities as door furniture, altar rail supports etc. The guide will be of interest not only in Crockenhill but, because Crockenhill was formerly divided between the parishes of Eynsford and St Mary Cray, more widely in the locality. More generally, it should be of interest to students of church design as an account of a small and successful parish church put up at a time of great change in the country.

Donald King
Review reprinted from The Trident magazine.