Help our appeal
Kneelers are becoming redundant
The practice of kneeling is in decline. Stackable plastic chairs are replacing pews. Kneelers are being removed. Over the next few decades, many – if not most – kneelers will end in landfill.
How you can help
Parish Kneelers
Create a Kneeler Archive
Please help us build a photographic record of kneelers that are local, original and unique. This website has fewer than 4,000 kneeler images. There are probably 150,000 original kneelers that are not recorded anywhere.
In a hundred years’ time, people will be fascinated by the social history illustrated on kneelers. A thatcher’s tools, a sewing machine, an oil rig will seem strange and wonderful. How many of the birds and plants featured will still be common?
Please – for the sake of future generations – send us photographs of kneelers that are local, original and unique. The names of the churches holding them will be preserved in the new ARCHIVE section but their kneeler images will at present only be stored off site.
NB: We only want original kneelers. Kneelers made from kits are already recorded in the suppliers’ catalogue. If in doubt, check the kneeler’s base to see if it carries a kit suppliers’ label.
Please send us your kneeler images
- If you only have a few images, attach them to your email to: kneelers.archive@gmail.com . Please include the name, location and county of your church.
- If you have more than a few, the simplest way is to send them by: WeTransfer
How to use the WeTransfer file sharing service
- Go to WeTransfer.
- When it opens, click on Transfers in the horizontal menu at the top of the page.
- When the small box on the left opens, fill it in adding all your files in a single folder or adding each file separately.
- Send it to: kneelers.archive@gmail.com
- Be sure to include the name, location and county of your church.
If you have kneeler images from multiple locations it might be an idea to send multiple emails or WeTransfer requests. This is so we can catalogue the sent kneeler images correctly.
Kneeler collections now added:
- Berkshire: Windsor, St George’s Chapel
- Bedfordshire: Dunstable, The Priory Church of St Peter
- Cambridgeshire: Hamerton, All Saints
- Cornwall: Landewednack, St Wynwallow
- Cornwall: Zennor, St Senara
- Devon: Exeter Cathedral
- Essex: Rayleigh, Holy Trinity
- Gloucestershire: Cheltenham, Warden Hill, St Christopher
- Middlesex: Greensill, St John the Baptist
- Hampshire: Broughton, St Mary the Virgin
- Hampshire: Cheriton, St Michael and All Angels
- Hampshire: Steep, All Saints
- Huntingdonshire: Hammerton, All Saints
- Sussex: Rudgwick, Holy Trinity
- West Sussex: Slinfold, St Peter’s
- West Midlands: Stourbridge Amblecote, Holy Trinity
- North Yorkshire: Embsay with Eastby, St Marys
Thanks for your help in saving kneeler images for future generations.