8 BCD SPECIAL REPORT ON HISTORIC CHURCHES 32nd ANNUAL EDITION parish structures and could build where they wanted. There was competition, especially in areas recently urbanised, between the home mission of the Church of England and the missions, crusades and revivals amongst the disparate groups of nonconformists. In rural areas, daughter churches were erected to reduce time walking to parish churches, and wayside chapels were placed by sympathetic landowners. All of them took advantage of low build costs, and while many were intended as temporary structures often for resale, others were intended as permanent buildings. VICTORIAN DESIGNS Churches can be considered as either a house for God or a house for God’s people, each with its own archetypal layout: the former a tworoom (medieval) plan; the latter an ‘auditory’ (post-Restoration) plan which, strictly speaking, doesn’t have a nave. Generally, the former suited Catholics and Anglicans, the latter nonconformists. These liturgically-led archetypes connect function, architecture and ornamentation. The ecclesiologists accepted corrugated iron on their own terms, so many tin tabernacles have an exuberance of gothic detailing, while nonconformists’ churches and chapels tend to be plain and shed-like, except for cross-shaped windows along either side, often with gothic hoods. The function of the windows was to allow light and air to enter the space, usually with the lower panes obscured to preclude external distractions. The interior walls were usually lined with matchboard (typically 150 mm wide interlocking boards of pine), often with decorative beaded edges. Later in the 19th century, oil and gas lamps became common and harmoniums were often introduced to accompany hymn singing. These features are not unique to tin tabernacles; an early photo of Sway Baptist (see next page) shows all these items and a warming stove, although its walls are of brick not iron. Items such as offertory boxes, hymn boards and benches frequently survive. Doors are typically framed, ledged and boarded, often with chevron designs created between adjacent panels. The majority of doors are square headed, but a significant proportion are pointed gothic and up to 2.5 m high. Despite being architecturally simple, many liturgical tin tabernacles have an altar step (predella), and nonconformist churches and chapels frequently had biblical texts in gothic lettering affixed to the walls. Glastonbury chairs, reading desks and hymn boards are common fittings. Benches tend to be simple in form, without elaborately A rich variety of corrugated iron buildings survives. The three in the left column are all Anglican churches and chapels, while those in the middle are all Methodist, some still in use as places of worship. Those on the right illustrate some of the many other uses of corrugated iron which include village halls (top right), reading rooms (middle right) and stores – in this case by the military (bottom right). (All photos: Michael King)
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