Underbarrow Church

The Church of All Saints at Underbarrow has received some criticism for its architecture. Professor Pevsner famously described its little tower as ‘naughty’, perhaps on account of its location above the porch, its dainty design contrasting with its prominent position. The Church of England’s own Faculty Heritage Record states that it has

…a curious sense of compression the verticals all seem exaggerated (walls, windows, spirelet, steep roof; the nave, foreshortened by the transepts), together giving the impression of a church squeezed into a tight space (and/or budget).

Yet I, one who is normally unimpressed or indifferent to Victorian churches, thought it rather fine. Its font, for example, is made of wood, unusually, and stands on rather beautiful legs of ebony. A carved angel by the pulpit bears the message 'God is Love’ while his colleague across the chancel arch admonishes ‘Worship Thou Him’. Oil lamps still hang from the ceiling and an old Library Box (from a previous building, presumably) is still attached to the wall. Furthermore, its chancel, which concluding in a pleasing apse, is painted white, giving a bright and airy feel, not dull and dreary like some of its contemporaries. All in all, a pleasant little church, whatever the experts and authorities condescend to mutter about it.

Nevertheless, another little feature caught my eyes as from the site I prepared to depart. A health and safety sign was stuck into the ground:

Warning

Sudden Drop

- replete with a silhouetted figure falling backwards. A watercourse ran beneath, and a steep bank there was between the higher church and the cold waters.

A church building should not essentially be about grand designs and beautiful décor, though visiting most of England’s churches and cathedrals, one might be forgiven for thinking this their primary raison d'être. Dainty, naughty little towers are cute, and wooden fonts notable, but the church’s main role is to prepare us for that inevitable moment when we drop to our deaths, some to heaven, others to hell. Beware, gentle reader, of the sudden drop awaiting you.

Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years approach, wherein thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them... Ecc 12:1, Geneva Bible