Sir Stephen Glynne [1807-1874] compiled over 106 notebooks recording his architectural observation whilst visiting over 5500 medieval churches, primarily in England and Wales. Only a fraction of these notebooks have been published. Lawrence Butler's The Yorkshire Church Notes of Sir Stephen Glynne (1825-1874) is a masterly edition of the recorded observations made by Sir Stephen Glynne between 1825 and 1874 detailing 381 of the potential 812 medieval Yorkshire parish churches. Glynne's notes were previously published in a series of articles in the Yorkshire Archaeology Journal (YAJ) between 1893 and 1922, now difficult to locate or consult. This is therefore a welcome new edition of Glynne's Yorkshire notes, which provides new insights, updated restoration information and other welcome additions.
At first consideration the church notes of yet another antiquarian portends a romanticised rendition of ecclesiastical minutiae but Lawrence Butler's edition elevates Sir Stephen Glynne's encyclopaedic 19th century observations into a satisfying and useful reference book. This is not a book to read cover to cover, nor is it an addition to the coffee table collection. It is a reference book that will sit comfortably besides Pevsner on the library shelf, or in the backpack those who study church architecture, 19th-century perspectives on the same, or just possess a curiosity about church arrangements before and during the Victorian restorations.
Butler's biographical notes on Glynne, and his general introduction is thorough and is best carefully read to fully understand the nature of Glynne and his agenda. Sir Stephen Glynne was an active member of the Ecclesiological Society (serving for a time as Vice president), the Cambrian Archaeological Association (the first president 1847-49) and chairman of the Architectural section of the [Royal] Archaeological Institute. He was considered an expert in his own time but in spite of encouragement to do so, he never published his Notes which he considered a "private pleasure." Whilst his interest was ecclesiastical his vocabulary was architectural, ultimately influenced by the Cambridge Camden Society usage. The Yorkshire Church Notes are agonisingly factual and concise; yet reliably meticulous. Glynne often provided a few comments regarding the location or his journey in his diary, but his Notes focused on the architectural features of the churches in a systematic method: the plan of the church, external features, internal features and finally any important fittings such as tombs and fonts. He did not record the chronological development of a church and was uninterested and thus unmoved by the loss of chapels or aisles. He was, like his conservative contemporaries, particularly interested in the appropriateness of seating and liturgical fittings, and his dim view of "pues" (pews) and the abandonment or mis-use of chancels shines clear in his Church Notes.
In his edition Butler has arranged Glynne's observations alphabetical order by parish, he provides the Yorkshire administrative regions: York and the North Riding, the East Riding or the West Riding followed by the church dedication and the date of Glynne's visit. He provides Glynne's church descriptions in full with full extensions where helpful but retaining Glynne's spelling when appropriate. Thankfully Butler's editorial methodology leans towards the non-intrusive sort and emendations and other apparatus are left to the footnotes. At the conclusion of each entry he provides the volume and page of Glynne's notebooks and the previous publication in YAJ and follows with other printed references.
St Helen in Hemsworth, West Riding, visited in January 1860, is perhaps typical of Glynne's notes: "A poor church, having nave and chancel, each with north and south aisles, south porch and small western tower...The nave has a clerestory, and each arcade is of three pointed arches on octagonal columns...and [is] of course Perpendicular. The clerestory windows [are] square-headed of two lights, and mauled...The font is modern. There are pues and west gallery and a finger organ..." ( 217).
Periodically Glynne's personal concern for conservative liturgical arrangements surface but it is his devotion to the medieval vestiges of parish churches that is the clearest. In probably 1827 he wrote of St John's in Leeds, West Riding, "This church was entirely built in the 17th century, and therefore contains no specimen of good architectural character"; although he does continue that the "interior is very handsome from the rich effect produced by the uncommon quantity of beautiful wood carving" ( 275). Compare this to his later records on St Oswald's Church, Collingham, West Riding in 1865 "[t]his church has lost to a large extent its ancient features, and is an unhappy specimen of ill-judged, though well intended, restoration about 1841..."; he concludes that "[t]he chancel...has been modernised in a pretentious but ignorant manner" (145). At St Mary's Kirkburn, the East Riding, in the same year he comments "This chancel has been wholly rebuilt, and seems to be in the true spirit of the original work. The interior is very impressive, from its loftiness and good arrangements" (245).
The timing of Glynne's Church Notes and perambulations also preserved descriptions of churches now lost to modern visitors such as St Crux, York destroyed and rebuilt in 1887. He twice visited Christ Church, York, also known as Holy Trinity on King's Square. At his first visit, probably 1825 and certainly before 1840, he described the church as "indifferent and [a] mean structure...projecting most inconveniently into the Haymarket so as to render the corner very dangerous"; but revisiting the church in 1871 he notes "the church has been fairly restored and put into good condition" (455). Sadly, as Butler reminds us, the church was totally demolished in 1937.
Amongst the editorial comments Butler provides to Glynne's Yorkshire Church Notes the most satisfying are to be found in his footnotes to Glynne's descriptions. Not only does Butler comment on emendations made or notes added by Glynne and clarifies otherwise confusing reference to other visits, both in keeping with what one expects of a critical edition, but Butler extends the value of Glynne's own work through further research footnotes. In these notes, Butler provides indications of subsequent church restoration, architects and notes surviving documents and plans. Butler has effectively rescued Glynne's Yorkshire Church Notes from merely describing a frozen moment in time into a valuable resource for those who wish to trace for themselves the 19th-century changes in church architecture.
Whilst Butler organised his Yorkshire Church Notes in alphabetical order by parish, Appendix 1 provides Glynne's own index arranged first by the Yorkshire administrative regions: York and the North Riding, the East Riding and the West Riding and then in alphabetical order by parish. The appendix provides the dates of Glynne's visit as well as his manuscript volume and page number. Butler has also provided the relevant citation within the YAJ volume and pages. Glynne did not index all of the churches he visited, an omission that Butler rectifies in this Appendix. The YAJ did not publish all of Glynne's Yorkshire Yorkshire Church Notes and often the printer did not realise that some notes were in fact emendations or re-visits to churches, Butler has made these instances clear in Appendix 2 by correlating the YAJ articles to Glynne's manuscript volumes. Appendices 3 and 4 complete Butler's meticulous edition with facsimiles of Glynne's field notes of St Mary's church Richmond (Appendix 3) and a loose sheet of cryptic notes by Glynne regarding other churches in Richmond (Appendix 4). There is also a very useful glossary of architectural terms; although not exhaustive it is sufficiently robust to define some of the idiosyncratic terms, now out of use, prevalent in the work of Glynne and his ecclesiological companions. Butler's own index is very useful and extensive.
The List of Illustrations, perhaps not normally an item to be reviewed, shows the extent to which Butler has taken Glynne's work another step forward. He provides illustrations of 200 of the Yorkshire churches visited by Glynne. The remarkable breath of varying mediums, including water colours, ink drawings, engravings and early photographs, are gratefully received. It is not only the pictorial value of these illustrations that makes their inclusion in this edition satisfying but the effort taken to find pictures contemporary with Glynne's visits. Using three unpublished sources Butler included drawings by John Buckler [d. 1894] from the collections at the British Library and the Society of Antiquarians of London dating from 1812- 1825; other illustrations from collections in the Lambeth Palace Library by unknown artists date from 1840 to 1845; and a collection of various, often unknown, artists in a variety of mediums collected for the Bishop of Ripon and now at the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds. Butler augmented these unpublished illustrations with 19th century photographs and other published illustrations.
It is perhaps ironical that the legacy of Stephen Glynne, one who so ardently disliked Post-Reformation additions and accretions, may be ultimately appreciated for the singular glimpse of those un-restored churches BEFORE the Victorian brooms swept away the previous centuries of church arrangement and replaced it with their stylised version of "medieval." Lawrence Butler's edition has provided a complete and utterly valuable access to an important collection of church architectural notes.