Birmingham lay at the heart of the mid-19th century Gothic Revival, being closely associated with its two most influential early pioneers: Thomas Rickman and A. W. N. Pugin. Gothic architecture had been used for picturesque decoration in England throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, a practice that continued into the early 19th century, with notable examples in Birmingham including Metchley Abbey in Harborne of ca. 1800; and Francis Goodwin's Holy Trinity, Bordesley – a commissioners' church of 1822, "far from correct and far from dull". The mid 19th century however saw a conscious and far-reaching revival in the use of Gothic as a complete and rigorous system of construction, encompassing both structure and decoration and involving a renewed emphasis on historical authenticity.