Church orientations and patronal festivals

Abstract

InAntiq. Journ.xxx (1950), pp. 47–51, the late C.J.P. Cave, F.S.A., contributed a paper on the orientation of churches. He referred to Wordsworth's poem on Rydal chapel, written in 1823, and to the note prefixed to it. In this note Wordsworth says: ‘Our churches invariably perhaps, stand east and west, butwhyis by few personsexactlyknown; nor, that the degree of deviation fromdueeast often noticed in the ancient ones was determined, in each particular case, by the point in the horizon at which the sun rose upon the day of the saint to whom the church was dedicated.’ The poem that follows describes a vigil on the site the night before, and in the morning the solemn fixing of the church's position by observing the rising sun.

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