A jewel of the North
QUESTION Where is the largest parish church in Britain?
By floor space, Beverley Minster, or the Church of England parish church of St John & St Martin in East yorkshire, is the largest with an area of 3,489 square metres, roughly half the size of a full-sized football pitch. It is larger than a third of the country’s cathedrals.
Minster is a traditional name used in the north of England for a large church, typically one of cathedral status that was built as part of a monastery.
The building is renowned for its fine Gothic architecture and has fine examples of the three principal styles of Early English, Decorated and Perpendicular.
There has been a Christian community on the site for more than 1,300 years. St John of Beverley founded a monastery nearby in the eighth century.
on his death in 721, his body was buried in a chapel at the church. After he was canonised in 1037, successive churches were built around his tomb and shrine.
Traces of the old St Martin church can be seen on the Minster’s southern side.
The roman Catholic St Walburge’s in
Preston, lancs, has the tallest spire — 309ft (94m) — of any parish church in England. It is 14ft (4m) higher than the spire at St James, louth, lincs, the highest Anglican parish church.
St Walburge’s was built in the mid-19th century to a design by architect Joseph Hansom, designer of the hansom cab.
Charles Reeves, Leyland, Lancs.
QUESTION My teenager tells me if something is sick, it’s brilliant. What other words now have the opposite meaning?
THE switch in meaning for words such as sick, wicked, ill and bad is nothing new. There is evidence of bad meaning good dating back to the late 19th century. In the 17th century, terrific meant causing terror or fear, frightful. It came from the latin terrere, fill with fear, and became an intensifier, such as a terrific headache. By the 19th century it had become an entirely positive term.
likewise, awful and awesome — derived from the 13th-century aue, meaning fear, terror or great reverence — have gone their separate ways.
Tremendous has its roots in fear. It came from the latin tremendus, meaning fearful, to be dreaded. It also became an intensifier (tremendously good) and finally became a positive term.
Egregious was a positive word that turned negative. It was used to mean eminent, as in Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine: ‘Egregious Viceroyes of these Eastern parts.’
Through its sarcastic use it came to mean offensive, as in Henry fielding’s Universal Gallant: ‘He wou’d be an egregious Ass who wou’d venture to lay out his Money in them.’
Bully was once a term of endearment derived from the Middle Dutch boele, meaning lover.
Shakespeare used it this way in Henry V: ‘from my hart strings I loue the louely bully.’ But by the end of the 17th century it denoted a braggart, then a coward who picks on others.
Kristina Martin, Royal Leamington Spa.
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