| In the first four decades of Queen Victoria's reign some nine thousand medieval churches were restored or rebuilt, close to ninety percent of the total number of ancient churches in Britain and more than four times the number of those built between 1837 and 1877. Despite the sheer volume of this work and the fact every major Gothic Revival architect practiced restoration, historians have either passed over the subject or pointed to it as an embarrassing instance of Victorian naivete. The Victorians are blamed for trusting uncritically in the then newly codified systems of archaeology and architectural history. This trust, the argument continues, led to the belief that it was possible to restore lost features faithfully without compromising the authenticity of ancient remains.;Instead of blaming restoration, this thesis outlines the principles which professional architects followed when they restored medieval churches. These principles amounted quite simply to a belief that there was no essential difference between a literally ancient building or architectural feature and a copy of the same. Archaeology and architectural history guaranteed the authenticity of conjectural restorations. Maintaining the regularities of period style stood above every other consideration. Once antiquity was reduced to a matter of design then the ultimate goal, the revival of an extinct style, was assured.;After tracing the lineaments of this system in a sample of some two hundred church restorations dating from 1837 to 1877, the thesis then treats the social utility of the belief in a perfect historical knowledge. Architects, just then trying to distinguish themselves from builders in order to improve their social status, tried to take professional control of restoration by imposing fee structures and codes of practice. The Anglican Clergy promoted restoration to fashion an outward sign for the Church's spiritual regeneration in the face of the age's growing secularism. It is argued that social formations and not taste account for the success of church restoration. Strict conservation, opposed to restoration, came about when these interests had weakened. |
