The Restoration of Blythburgh Church, 1881-1906 : The Dispute between the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings and the Blythburgh Church Restoration Committee

Edition of original letters and other documents sheds light on a major ecclesiastical controversy. In 1881, after decades of mouldering into ruin, the grand fifteenth-century church of Blythburgh, Suffolk, "The Cathedral of the Marshes", was closed as unsafe.

The church was saved - but its rescue involved a bitter twenty-five year long dispute between Blythburgh vicars and committees, and William Morris and his Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, who feared that the medieval fabric would be over-restored and the character of the building lost forever. This volume presents an edition, with notes and introduction, of original documents from both sides - providing unique insights into a rancorous conflict, with vicars pitted against patrons as well as the Society.The need was local, but the significance national, with elites ranged against another.

From a description of the Blythburgh committee headed by a royal princess, to accounts of lavish fund-raising fetes and garden parties, the story is vividly brought to life. Alan Mackley, an honorary research fellow at the University of East Anglia, studied history after a career as a scientist in the oil industry.

He has lived in Suffolk for over 35 years.