The Medieval Sourcebook : The Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine Now has, along with much else, William Caxton’s English version of the Legend. Essential. NEW
The Internet Biblia Pauperum The Biblia Pauperum, an early text-and-pictures work vital to an understanding of medieval iconography and interpretation of the Scriptures. There are many versions, and this one is based on an English block-book from the 14th century. Excellent and highly recommended.
The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew Source for many legends and stories about the Infancies of Christ and of the Virgin Mary. NEW
The York Doomsday Project A growing site concerned with Medieval drama and iconography. This link will take you to a page showing a detail of the celebrated Doom at St. Thomas, Salisbury and the remarkable ‘Ladder of Salvation’ painting at Chaldon in Surrey.
University of Michigan medieval research American academic site concentrating on images of and written resource material about S.Edmund of East Anglia. Good links, including. Also includes links to images of S.Sebastian
The Digital Atlas of England. A wealth of detail on English churches, with excellent photographs and very useful access details (see also general notes on access below)
The Journal of William Dowsing Dowsing was Parliamentary Visitor for Suffolk & Cambridgeshire in the 1630s, and an energetic iconoclast. He visited many of the churches on this site. AMENDED LINK
Two from Suffolk, both highly recommended
Churches of Suffolk - an alternative guide. A very nice site with excellent photographs and plenty of information about individual churches
wodewose.co.uk The new name for Aidan Semmens’ former ‘Sylly Suffolk’ site. Still excellent. AMENDED LINK WITH NEW URL
BBC local radio’s Three Counties (Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire) website. Some very good photographs of church architecture, along with much else.
Website of St. Clements, Ashampstead, Berks
Doom at Holy Trinity, Coventry (Andrew & Sarah Price’s photographs of this recently uncovered painting) NEW
Website of Hornton Church, Oxfordshire
Website of S. Mary’s Church, Houghton-on-the-Hill
Website of Slapton Church, Northants (THIS LINK IS BROKEN AT PRESENT - February 13, 2005)
Website of Yaxley Church and village, Suffolk (in preparation at the time of writing but online very soon)
Webpage for South Leigh Church, Oxon - from the Oxford Diocese site. Contact information and a useful local map
On-screen road atlas maps Try this site for (free) detailed on-screen road atlas maps. Simply click ‘UK Place’, enter the location you want (in this case the village/town - e.g. ‘Crostwight’) and watch the map appear. Very easy to negotiate.
Access : Some churches are always open, some always locked, and some open for part of the day/week/year. Locked churches will almost always have a notice somewhere telling visitors where to find a keyholder nearby. Failing that, local people are usually anxious to help, and a little persistence should yield results. If you can consult the relevant Diocescan Year Book in advance for access details, so much the better. The Digital Atlas of England (link above) is also very useful here. Crockford’s Clerical Directory is another resource, but remember that Vicars/Rectors/Parish teams are often a)out or b)very busy. (They and their churches are also usually very short of money as well, so do remember this if you visit, and be generous.)
Feedback/E-mail, etc : Comments and suggestions about the site are welcomed. So are requests for further information, and I’d be particularly glad to hear from anyone with a site on a related subject (e-mail address below).
Photographs : Where I can improve them, I replace photographs at regular intervals. Look at the What’s New page for details. But download the images by all means. Print quality will obviously depend to a great extent on the printer, so if you need a photograph or 35mm. slide just contact me and we can arrange something - (e-mail address below and on Home Page). In one or two cases the photographs on a page have been donated to the site