The launch of the Inspired! campaign coincides with the centenary of the birth of Sir John Betjeman, former Poet Laureate and famous champion of England’s churches.
He not only loved the buildings but he got involved in them. He campaigned to save many church buildings and he is a wonderful demonstration of what one dedicated enthusiast can achieve in the conservation of historic churches.
He was the first person to draw together both the architectural and spiritual in his groundbreaking Collins’ Guide to English Parish Churches and through his work encouraged a greater appreciation of overlooked Victorian church architects such as Comper, Bodley, Butterfield and Street.
Betjeman passed on his insatiable love of “church-crawling” – visiting churches wherever he went – to his children and this year his daughter, the writer Candida Lycett Green, is urging the nation to remember her father by visiting a church.
“I can't pass a church I haven’t seen before without wanting to go in. Perhaps it is an addiction. A church provides a calm encompassing I need and crave. I feel comforted by the hearts and souls of generations of parishioners all around me. I don't see how you can get the gist of a village without going into its church, for it brings home so much of the past and the present. The names on the cleaning rota in the porch, the local carvers' art on the gravestones, the Norman moulding round the bottom of the font or the organ installed in grateful memory of those who gave their lives in the last war.”
Candida Lycett Green
A number of events are being planned for the centenary celebrations. For further details visit www.johnbetjeman.com