Hook Church has undergone a number of changes down the centuries to make it suitable for the people of the day.

Most medieval churches had two distinct areas, a ‘holy’ or set-apart area in the ‘chancel’ which was only ever used for religious purposes and for many of the daily services. The ‘altar’ would have been by the East Wall. It would have been separated from the ‘nave’ or body of the church by a ‘rood screen’. (See Picture at the end of this page). The nave  was used for larger services with the people standing and often milling about and possibly a few benches by the walls where the elderly or infirm could sit. Hence the saying ‘our backs to the wall’. There would have been wall paintings and possibly stained glass which told the Bible stories and other religious messages. Many used these as much as the spoken words in their worship. At the reformation, most rood screens were removed along with any stone altars and many wall paintings and stained glass windows also removed. This was because of perceived corruption of the message and story of Jesus going on in the practice of the church before the reformation. Lecterns on which a church bible in the language of the people and a Holy Table in the Nave round which to share the Lord’s Supper were the new things and practices of worship changed significantly. By the time of the Victorians and the 1844 Restoration of the church, styles of worship were less ‘puritanical’ but did include long sermons and anthems by the local choir. Seating for the public to take part in these types of services was popular and cheap seating using ‘pews’ without cushions were installed in a ‘linear’ fashion, with all facing the choir / preacher. Today we have a wide range of worship styles popular and useful in the church of England, including forms which echo the medieval and forms which pick up on all sorts that’s happened before and since then. We also need communal space, somewhere or way that ‘people’ can meet together and form the family of God, not needed when the church served a small village in which everyone worked cheek by jowl and new one another. So we’re looking to re-order, again the inside of the church to allow us to worship and meet in a way which is suitable to our age.

We’re also aware that medieval churches not only served their community as a religious space, but when worship was not taking place in them the nave would be used as a public meeting room and for markets and so on. Now we don’t have ambition to have pigs in again, or use the church building in inappropriate ways, but we do want the building used day in day out by the community to help people live their lives better. So would like to have the Nave of the church returned to being a flexible space which is really useful to the community and the church and in which many activities can take place. Hence