Church Alignment and Patronal Saint's Days

Abstract

The results of this survey of almost 1,500 rural churches do not support the oft-repeated idea that churches are aligned with their patronal saint's sunrise. In fact, they provide evidence that the churches specifically do not face different sunrises and that churches dedicated to saints with summer feast-days are aligned in the same direction as those dedicated to saints with winter feast-days. However, the results of the survey raise significant questions about other aspects of church alignment. A significant variation in alignment has been uncovered east to west across the country, with a difference of 10° in the mean alignment of churches between the west and east of England. Possible reasons for this are explored. In addition, churches built on sloping sites are found to have downhill-facing chancels. If the choice of site were random, churches would face uphill as well as down. The possible implications of this for church and village location are also explored.