A short pamphlet by the Cambridge Camden Society, later the Ecclesiological Society, telling Anglican parishes how to build a “correct” church: orientated to the east, with a distinct chancel, a porch, open seats instead of pews and details of the Middle Pointed (Decorated) period.
The Cambridge Camden Society was founded in 1839 by undergraduates, among them John Mason Neale and Benjamin Webb, to study church architecture and furnishing. Its pamphlets and its journal, The Ecclesiologist (from 1841), judged new churches severely against a single standard: the English parish church of about 1300.
A Few Words to Church Builders sets the programme out as a list of plain instructions. A church must have a chancel, separate from the nave and at least a third of its length; it must be orientated with its altar to the east; its roof must be high-pitched; its seats must be open benches, not rented box pews; its tower should stand at the west or beside the nave; and its style should be that of the Middle Pointed period. Hundreds of Victorian churches were built to these rules.
The book, part by part
I The arrangement of a church
Chancel, orientation, porch, roof, seating and style.
Rules: The correct church: orientated, with a distinct chancel