Behind its unprepossessing red-brick exterior, a Catholic church in the Midlands boasts an astonishing display of mosaics and sculptures that is beginning to draw thousands of visitors a year.

“The heart”, said John Henry Newman, “is commonly reached, not through the reason, but through the imagination.”

It was a comment made in a letter to The Times after Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel had said in 1841, at the opening of a Reading Room in Tamworth in the Midlands, that the spread of secular useful knowledge was the key to moral advancement. Those availing themselves of the Reading Room would “in becoming wiser … become better.” Theology would not be needed in adult education: science and manufacturing would be enough.

Get Instant Access

Continue Reading

Register for free to read this article in full

REGISTER

Subscribe for unlimited access

SUBSCRIBE NOW

From just £37.50 quarterly

  Print copy of The Tablet delivered directly to your door.
  Complete access to all Tablet website content including all premium content.
  Access to the weekly digital copy of The Tablet.
  Full access to The Tablet’s archive – over 180 years of back issues.

Already a subscriber? Login