ON Friday, April 8 President George Chesterton gave a warm welcome to the Rt Reverend John Inge, Bishop of Worcester, who gave us a very thought-provoking talk entitled Comparative Social History.

The thrust of the talk was the importance of place in our lives, a topic on which John has written extensively. He explained that place is a significant part of human experience which is not recognised as much as it should be in our society.

Through many fascinating examples, starting with our own environment of Malvern and the Malvern Hills, John illustrated the close linkage between the built environment, the natural environment and the people. In the Malvern Hills, he suggested that the age-old rocks have shaped the very existence of the people who have lived there throughout the centuries. The hills have been an inspiration to people like Elgar, for example. Using experiences from his own life of living in very different, contrasting places like Harrow and Tyneside, John emphasised how much the history and life of the people will be dictated by their landscape. Quoting various literary figures, such as D H Lawrence, he suggested that every continent has its own spirit, different vibrations, and a different polarity.

John then went on to say that there is something about the spirit of a place. Although some believe human experience would be the same in one place as it would in another, this is dehumanising in his view. Actually, the places we inhabit enter into the experience we have as human beings. In our society, John thinks that there has been a downgrading of the significance of place intellectually, unlike the importance it held in the Scriptures. Most of us can look back and see how our grandparents’ generations were in the same place as their ancestors whereas nowadays there has been an extraordinary explosion of mobility. John believes that this mobility unsettles and terrifies people at the deepest level. In fact the 20th century has been described as the century of refugees. As a result, we have lost an understanding of the relational aspect of place, which is fundamental to our human experience.

The role of the Civic Society, suggested John, is to make sure people are aware of the story of the place and that they value it. In fact places can develop something akin to a personality. Even when buildings have been remade, the place is still the same in essence, even with the physical identity changed. And the way that change is applied to buildings is important, but it is equally important that they be allowed to develop, such as the OId Palace in Worcester, which has grown and developed. John suggested that it is important to get the right balance between growth and development, and conserving from the past, which also echoes the principles followed by the Civic Society. Buildings have therefore something of a personality about them and an almost mystical power can sometimes be accorded to them. He felt that this notion can sometimes be articulated by poetry better than by prose.

Landscape, people and place, as well as God for a Christian, are all closely related, he concluded. Quoting TS Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral, he illustrated his point with: “for wherever a saint has dwelt, wherever a martyr has given his blood for the blood of Christ, there is holy ground, and the sanctity shall not depart from it.”

An interesting question and answer session followed, covering issues such as the future of churches and how they should be used, echoing the topic covered last year by the Archdeacon of Worcester. John also talked a little about the fact that communities and churches can make relational links to help each other, with easier places often teaming up with very difficult, under-privileged ones. Mathematics, and indeed culture itself, come into the equation, where the Gothic style on the one hand can be viewed as reaching towards Heaven, asking a question, whilst on the other hand the 1960s style can be seen as brutalist. This therefore tells us a lot about a society and its preferences with respect to architecture.

On Civic Society business, Chairman Roger Sutton highlighted events from the comprehensive April news sheet. People were also encouraged to pay any outstanding subscriptions due.

For information on forthcoming events, details are listed in the April News handout or on the website www.malverncivicsociety.org.uk.

For anyone wishing to join the Civic Society, please contact Greville Megson on 01684 572748.

The next talk, called Gustav Holst will be given by Laura Kinnear and will take place on Friday, May 13 at 7.30pm at Christchurch.

DENISE PRESTON.