Is there anything more heart-warming than a church kneeler?
And now this most British of things has found its biographer in the shape of Elizabeth Bingham, the leading authority on Anglican church kneelers and founder of the website parishkneelers.co.uk.
Bingham's new book, Kneelers: The Unsung Folk Art of England and Wales, includes some of the loveliest kneelers ever made, including the one pictured (right).
It also tells the story of the kneeler. The earliest surviving examples go back to the early-17th century: two Turkey-work kneelers for Wadham College, Oxford, one in honour of the college's founders, Nicholas and Dorothy Wadham, the other for James I.
Since then, kneelers have come in all materials, including, in 1915, Rexine – that familiar red fake leather. All was well until it was discovered that the ingredients of the fabric included cellulose nitrate, a low-powered explosive.
The Coronation in 1953 relaunched a boom in kneelers. Wildlife and plants became popular subjects, as did local pubs, shops, castles
