{"id":12169,"date":"2025-11-05T19:23:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T19:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/?p=12169"},"modified":"2025-11-05T19:23:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T19:23:19","slug":"forgotten-churches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/05\/forgotten-churches\/","title":{"rendered":"Forgotten Churches"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Lest We Forget<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Instagrammer Luke Sherlock\u2019s foray into print is a thoroughly unexpected little volume that makes up in visual beauty and depth of feeling for what it lacks in weight.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Review by Sarah Clark<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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I must issue two caveats before I begin this review: First, I am not on social media of any kind. Second, I\u2019m a sucker for a beautiful book. So I may in fact be the ideal reader for author Luke Sherlock (aka Instagram\u2019s @englishpilgrim) and illustrator Ioana Pioaru\u2019s recent book, Forgotten Churches: Exploring England\u2019s Hidden Treasures<\/em>.<\/p>

As a millennial, I am of course familiar with viral Internet sensations that are made into books. I Can Haz Cheezburger?<\/em> springs to mind. Also, Reasons My Kid Is Crying<\/em>. So let me begin by saying that Forgotten Churches<\/em>, despite belonging to the same genre of books-based-on-the-Internet, has very little in common with its cousins. I didn\u2019t even realize it had its origin in a social media account until midway through the introduction. It is a neat hardcover, small but not too small, with subtle gilding and a gorgeous illustration of a country church surrounded by its churchyard and some verdant greenery on the front.<\/p>

The second sign that Forgotten Churches<\/em> differs from many Internet-based books is that it doesn\u2019t include any of the Instagram photos from the @englishpilgrim account. Instead, every spread features a gorgeous, highly detailed, hand-drawn illustration of a church\u2019s exterior, interior, or a salient detail. The text is largely black, with highlights in red, and the illustrations are black-and-white. In short, this book couldn\u2019t look more different from the Internet and social media.<\/p>

The content of the book, on the other hand, is a bit less polished. Sherlock\u2019s introduction is honest about this and sets expectations appropriately; he writes, \u201cThis isn\u2019t a guidebook, nor is it an expert technical text. It is a work of amateur enthusiasm and passion, a glimpse into the endless fascinations afforded to me by England\u2019s churches and the landscapes they sit within.\u201d Fair enough. Sherlock is a bookstore owner who has developed a fairly large social media following (246,000 followers on Instagram, as of this writing) by traveling around England visiting historic churches and documenting the fascinating and obscure about what he finds; this book focuses in particular on lesser known and lesser visited sites and details. It is no surprise, therefore, that his account of his favorite spots and findings, despite clear efforts at organization, comes across as rather scattered and perhaps in need of a stronger editorial hand.<\/p>

Still, Sherlock has an ear for description that helps you picture yourself on the spot, and his awe and respect for sacred spaces comes through quite clearly in his prose. Like many others, he is (rightly) concerned about the fate of historic churches in an increasingly secular Great Britain, and his case for their preservation is straightforward, passionate, and compelling. \u201cIf they aren\u2019t valued, we could lose so much,\u201d he writes, \u201c[and] this would be to diminish ourselves.\u201d His affection, as well as his respect, for these places often shines through in his descriptions, and his imaginative efforts to enter into the lives and thoughts of those who built and worshipped in these churches of old are often successful.<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Also pleasing is Sherlock\u2019s ability to look sideways at his own enthusiasms, entertaining the possibility that his obsession is a bit outside the usual.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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For example, about St. Mary the Virgin in West Walton, Norfolk, a church \u201cin possession of one of the best examples of English early Gothic architecture in the country,\u201d Sherlock writes, \u201cThere is stillness and dignity here, something ineffably sacred stirred in the cool morning light.\u201d Or, after diving into the history of so-called \u201cwool churches\u201d whose construction was paid for by the wealth of the medieval wool trade, he writes of the Priory Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Steeple Ashton, Wiltshire, \u201cTo walk towards it through the dawn mist is an unforgettable experience.\u201d Of waiting for the rain to pass under the porch of St. James in Stanstead Abbotts, Herefordshire (yes, not all of the churches are named after the Virgin Mary), he writes, \u201cThere is an acute satisfaction to be found in sharing these simple and repeated patterns of behavior. The melody of the rain, the shiver of the wind, the raindrops mindlessly caught by the stroke of a forefinger on hewn wood. They, too would have known such things.\u201d<\/p>

Also pleasing is Sherlock\u2019s ability to look sideways at his own enthusiasms, entertaining the possibility that his obsession is a bit outside the usual. He begins his description of St. Mary the Virgin (yes, another one) of Woolpit, Suffolk, by admitting, \u201cI once had a fever for double-decker porches. It\u2019s a strange thing to say. But it is so.\u201d This and other such \u201cmaladies,\u201d he says, direct his wandering about the countryside, finding these almost-forgotten places and offering up his admiration for their architectural treasures. \u201cIf pushed,\u201d he says mock-judiciously of the back doorway of St. Mary the Virgin in Berkeley, Gloucestershire, \u201cI would go so far as to say, I think it might be my favourite portal in England.\u201d<\/p>

Sherlock celebrates the placed-ness of these churches and their treasures in the small communities which they have served throughout the centuries. \u201cSutterby is an out-of-the-way place,\u201d he remarks. \u201cYet a calmness accompanies it, as if a test asking you to be still and with yourself for a time.\u201d Or, describing the \u201ccolossal\u201d twelfth-century font of St. Michael, in Castle Frome, Herefordshire, he muses, \u201cWhat will never cease to amaze me is where these great pieces can be found. If this font were placed in one of the big London museums, it would punch admirably for attention by virtue of its beauty and national importance. I\u2019m glad it\u2019s not. I\u2019m glad it\u2019s here.\u201d He clearly feels himself benefitted not only by his knowledge of the churches he visits, but by his experience of the different parts of England to which his mission to explore churches has drawn him.<\/p>

In the end, though, Sherlock declines to make a definite thesis out of his observations and accumulated knowledge of these little-considered, mostly forgotten churches that dot the English countryside. He calls them \u201ca spiritual inheritance, whether we come to them with faith or not,\u201d and he urges that \u201ctheir role as spiritual and community spaces should somehow<\/em> be respected\u201d (my italics). To me, it seemed a bit of a cop-out to assign all of the sacredness of sight and feeling that Sherlock has clearly encountered in his wanderings to mere personal experience. Even the notorious atheist Philip Larkin had to admit<\/a> that a church is \u201ca serious house on serious earth\u201d and \u201cproper to grow wise in.\u201d But like many enthusiasts for old English churches, having come this far, Sherlock is clearly stymied in his spiritual claims and lamely admits that England has changed, profoundly, and that he feels unable to do more than speculate about the future of his country\u2019s spiritual past. He urges the concept of pilgrimage (though it comes across sounding more like tourism: \u201cI firmly believe the UK has a tremendous opportunity to build on its reputation as a pilgrimage destination.\u201d), and additional funding for preservation. He concludes his spare four-page conclusion by hoping that someone (else) will figure it out before all of this beauty decays beyond recognition or the possibility of repair. \u00a0<\/p>

Despite its scattered organization and inconclusive ending, and perhaps because I share a bit of Sherlock\u2019s own \u201cmaladies,\u201d I enjoyed this book\u2014though I\u2019m not sure it really shines brightest when being read cover to cover, as I did. Still, I may pick it up again on a rainy day, flip through its pages, and allow Sherlock and Pioaru to transport me to medieval, or Norman, or modern-day England, to enter through the shadowy portal of a little country church, and to discover the secret treasures of stonework, woodwork, and dusty stillness that lie within. It has this also to recommend it: to date, it is the only Internet book to have earned its place on my shelf.<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Sarah Clark<\/strong> lives in New Hampshire with her family. She is a founding editor of Fare Forward<\/em> and the current editor-in-chief, and she owns Scale House Print Shop<\/a>, a letterpress printing studio. She graduated from Dartmouth College in 2011 and received an MAR in Religion & Literature from Yale Divinity School in 2022.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Forgotten Churches: Exploring England\u2019s Hidden Treasures<\/strong> was published by Frances Lincoln on March 27, 2025. Fare Forward<\/em> appreciates their provision of a copy to our reviewer. You can purchase your own copy from the publisher here<\/a>.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Instagrammer Luke Sherlock\u2019s foray into print is a thoroughly unexpected little volume that makes up in visual beauty and depth of feeling for what it lacks in weight. Review by Sarah 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