Researching Rutland
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Book Review
The Complete Guide to the Parish Churches of Rutland
By Andrew Swift
Published in 2014 by Velox Books, Leicester - Softbound - 114 pages – A4
ISBN: 978-0-9575701-2-2 - Price £15 plus £3 for courier delivery
The Parish Churches of Leicestershire
By Andrew Swift
Volume 1:
Ab Kettleby to Launde Abbey Chapel
Published in 2013 by Velox Books, Leicester - Softbound - 286 pages – A4 - ISBN: 978-0-9575701-0-8
Price £20 plus £3 for courier delivery
Volume 2:
Leicester’s Medieval Churches to Wymondham
Softbound - 311 pages – A4 - ISBN: 978-0-9575701-1-5 - Price £20 plus £3 for courier delivery
All three books available from local bookshops, Rutland County Museum or via andrewswift.co.uk
Andrew Swift, a geologist with a passion for historic buildings, has published three books about the Anglican churches of Leicestershire
and Rutland. Volume 1 of The Parish Churches of Leicestershire covers Ab Kettleby to Launde Abbey Chapel, and Volume 2 covers
Leicester’s Medieval Churches to Wymondham, a total of 316 churches in the two volumes. The Complete Guide to the Parish Churches
of Rutland covers all fifty churches in the county, including Normanton.
The author, an honorary visiting fellow at the University of Leicester, is quoted as saying ‘I’m interested in history and became fascinated
with churches and their place in social evolution over time’.
All three books follow the same format – a main photograph of the outside of the church, around 400 non-technical words on the
history, features and general design of each building as well as anything else of interest, and a full page of up to 15 colour photographs
to illustrate the text. Volume 1 of the Leicestershire books has a foreword by the Bishop of Leicester and volume 2 has a good
bibliography. Likewise, the Rutland book has a foreword by the Bishop of Peterborough and a bibliography.
There are of course other books on the churches of Rutland – including the Victoria County History for Rutland, volume II,
Canon John Prophet and Tony Traylen’s Churches of Rutland, Gillian Dickenson’s Rutland Parish Churches Before Restoration,
Leonard Cantor’s The Parish Churches of Leicestershire and Rutland and Pauline Collett’s The Parish Churches of Rutland (reviewed in the
April 2013 issue of this Newsletter). All bring something different to the reader and the new volume on Rutland churches is no different.
If, like me, you enjoy exploring the parish churches of Leicestershire and Rutland, you may want to buy all three of these excellent
new publications.
Robert Ovens