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 the medieval fabric would be over-restored and the character of the building lost forever.

Published: 2015