Читать книгу Betjeman’s Best British Churches - Richard Surman - Страница 14
ОглавлениеAPPLEBY-IN-WESTMORLAND: ST LAWRENCE – the light-hued sandstone and modest tower give a real charm to the church, which stands on the banks of the River Eden
The present county of Cumbria comprises the two traditional counties of Cumberland and Westmorland, as well as incorporating the Furness part of Lancashire, sometimes known as ‘Lancashire North of the Sands’, which has happily restored Cartmel Priory to its ex oficio position of being the ‘true’ cathedral of Cumbria. Not for nothing is the county’s motto Ad Montes Oculos Levavi – ‘I shall lift up mine eyes to the hills’.
A largely glacial landscape of mountains, valleys, lakes, tarns and fells, fringed in the west by a coastal plain, this part of England has been a source of awe for some. In the 18th century Daniel Defoe found the Westmorland landscape to be ‘the wildest, most barren and frightful of any that I have passed over in England’, bounded by unpassable mountains, with straggling paths on which the unwary traveller was likely to be waylaid.
By the mid-18th century the beauties of the area were being acknowledged by John Brown and Thomas Gray, although some, notably Thomas de Quincy, were still dismayed by the remoteness and savagery of the Lakeland landscapes. It was principally Wordsworth who gave romantic voice to the Lakeland landscape, and Turner and Constable who captured its mysterious beauty on canvas.
Slate sandstone and limestone are the rocks that define many of the area’s churches. The soft sandstone of the west doorway of St Bees Priory has weathered into its own abstract grotesques. In lonely Martindale, St Martin’s is rough-hewn slate, a tiny church that offers a peaceful pause to the fell walker. Sandstone features in the east of the county, notably in the beautifully situated church of St Lawrence in Appleby. In the north-east, hard by Hadrian’s Wall, is the glowing stone of Lanercost Priory, whilst at Cartmel the limestone tower of the Priory can be seen from Morecambe Bay, outlined against the distant hills.
North of St Bees, the Georgian town of Whitehaven testifies to Cumbria’s industrial past. Enriched by coal mining and ore extraction, the town was developed to a grid plan by Sir John Lowther in the 17th century. It was a successor’s principal colliery steward, Carlisle Spedding, who designed the fine Georgian church of St James – which Pevsner considers to be one of the finest Georgian interiors of the county.
But it is the little upland and valley churches of the Lakeland fells that draw many: the idyllic setting of St Michael at Isel and the quiet charm of St John’s at Ulpha, more or less as Wordsworth knew it. Old Westmorland’s open and remoter places contain churches of infinite charm too. St Ninian Ninekirks, redundant but still open, requires a good walk along an indistinct track to a meadow overlooking the River Eamont, about one and half miles round trip but hugely rewarding. For the less energetic, the ‘Cathedral of the Dales’ – Kirkby Stephen’s parish church of St Stephen, with its glorious Early English arcades – is easy to access.
BASSENTHWAITE: ST BEGA – an ancient church with pre-Conquest origins
APPLEBY-IN-WESTMORLAND
† St Lawrence
12m/19km S.E. of Penrith
OS NY683204 GPS 54.5782N, 2.4915W
This large Decorated and Perpendicular church is set in a beautiful and unspoiled town between the River Eden and the Norman castle on the bluff dominating the ford. The chancel and other works are by Lady Anne Clifford, 1654–5, who lies here with her mother Lady Margaret. There are 15th-century Parclose screens, 17th-century monuments and a celebrated 16th-century organ case, removed from Carlisle Cathedral.
ARMATHWAITE
† Chapel of Christ & St Mary
9m/15km S.E. of Carlisle
OS NY505462 GPS 54.8082N, 2.7701W
The chapel stands on a hillock in fine scenery by the River Eden. The original chapel fell into a ruinous state and was used as a cattleshed until rebuilt c. 1688 by Richard Skelton of nearby Armathwaite Castle. Today it is a plain stone building, consisting of undivided nave and chancel, and small W. turret containing one bell. There is still something about it of the manger and the cattle in the straw that makes one think of it as a true church of the Nativity. The glass in the E. window is by William Morris and Co, to designs by Dearle and Burne-Jones.
BAMPTON † St Patrick
7m/11km S. of Penrith
OS NY521180 GPS 54.5553N, 2.7412W
Built in 1726–8, with the church interior much altered in 1885. The W. tower has a doorway with an interrupted segmental pediment. Inside are elegant oak Georgian arcade columns and a cut-down Jacobean pulpit.
BASSENTHWAITE † St Bega
6m/10km N.W. of Keswick
OS NY226287 GPS 54.6479N, 3.2000W
A short walk down a sloping track leads to a church with one of the loveliest of Lakeland settings, beside a vigorous stream, visited by the Wordsworths and Tennyson. Pre-Conquest in origin, c. 950, it has a slight lopsided feel, with two S. arches opening into the mid-14th-century chantry chapel endowed by Sir Adam de Bastenthwayt. Squeezed into the S. aisle is a 14th-century monument to Sir Robert Highmore. A beautiful replica of the original 14th-century lead crucifix hangs over the octagonal pulpit on the N. side of the chancel arch. On the other side is an iron hourglass bracket: a charming simple church in an inspiring setting.
BECKERMET † St John the Baptist
3m/4km S. of Egremont
OS NY018067 GPS 54.4463N, 3.5145W
By J. Birtley, 1878–9, St John the Baptist occupies a striking situation high above the confluence of two becks. It is a most successful example of a small Victorian church, with a pleasing and well-designed interior. There is a collection of Anglo-Danish sculpture and later coffin lids. The nearby 13th-century St Bridget’s, now a mortuary chapel, has two shafts of Norman crosses in the churchyard.
BEWCASTLE † St Cuthbert
9m/15km N. of Brampton
OS NY565745 GPS 55.0636N, 2.6819W
Although dramatically set among Border fells, the church itself is not particularly interesting, dating originally from the 13th century and rebuilt in the 18th century, at which time it was dedicated to St Cuthbert. But beside it is the celebrated late 7th-century Bewcastle Cross, an outstanding monument to the Golden Age of Northumbria.
BOLTON † All Saints
4m/6km N.W. of Appleby-in-Westmorland
OS NY639234 GPS 54.6046N, 2.5598W
An ancient little stone edifice, All Saints somehow achieves nobility. It has a late Norman chancel, nave and S. porch with doorway; over the N. door is a charming and celebrated Norman carving of knights jousting – a little treasure. The bell-turret, 1693, has a saddleback roof. The font and cover are from 1687, and an unusual chancel screen of open tracery is probably local work of the late 18th century.
BOLTONGATE † All Saints
5m/8km S.W. of Wigton
OS NY229407 GPS 54.7560N, 3.1986W
Originally Norman, and outwardly unremarkable, the church was rebuilt in the late 14th or early 15th century with a thrilling, steeply pointed tunnel vaulted nave which is supported on thick stone walls, themselves steadied by stout external buttressing. There is good glass by Kempe and Willement, and from the outside a fine view of Skiddaw.
BRAMPTON † St Martin
9m/15km N.E. of Carlisle
OS NY528610 GPS 54.9417N, 2.7378W
Built of red sandstone in indefinable style, with mixed Gothic and vernacular elements, this is Philip Webb’s only commissioned church, 1874–8. The wide and spacious interior has woodwork by local craftsmen and spectacular Pre-Raphaelite coloured glass by Burne-Jones and the Morris firm.
BRIDEKIRK † St Bridget
2m/3km N. of Cockermouth
OS NY116336 GPS 54.6905N, 3.3722W
Rebuilt by Cory & Ferguson, 1868–70, in a neo-Norman style, St Bridget’s is a large cruciform church with crossing tower and apse. The original tympanum and chancel arch were incorporated into the new church. The chief glory is the mid-12th-century font with an inscription recording its maker, ‘Richard he me wrought, and to this beauty me brought’, and some lively carvings of scenes and dragons.
BROUGHAM † St Ninian
1m/2km walk along river from Whinfell Park Farm, 2m/3km E. of Penrith
OS NY559299 GPS 54.6628N, 2.6846W
Churches Conservation Trust
Unforgettable: known locally as ‘Ninekirks’, St Ninian’s stands surrounded by trees in the middle of a field in a lonely meadow by the River Eamont. This was the site of a Saxon church, then a Norman, but today it is just as Lady Anne Clifford rebuilt it in 1660. It is a restrained instance of Gothic Survival, with whitewashed interior, oak box and canopied pews, pulpit with sounding board, oak seats with carved arm-rests and screens. Lady Anne’s initials, in a laurel surround, appear in the plasterwork over the altar.
CARTMEL: ST MARY THE VIRGIN AND ST MICHAEL – the richly carved choir stalls
BROUGHAM † St Wilfrid
By Brougham Hall, ½m/1km S. of Penrith
OS NY527284 GPS 54.6485N, 2.7335W
An ancient, plain little building of chancel, nave and bellcote, this one too was restored by Lady Anne Clifford (see previous entry) in the mid-17th century. It is filled with a collection of European antiques by the first Baron Brougham and Vaux in the 1840s, who also redid the windows in Norman style. The contrast between the interiors of these neighbouring churches is almost unbelievable. Here is rich cathedral opulence, the church as full as it can be of beautifully carved oak – an elaborate parclose organ casing, pillars, tall pews and a screen with rich round posts and beautiful cornice. The gilt oak reredos has a magnificent 15th-century altarpiece with superb carvings bordered by medieval woodwork of the finest craftsmanship. The pulpit is enriched with medieval carving; the oak roof is divided into panels, each with richly emblazoned shield or crest. Nothing in Cumbria, or indeed anywhere, compares with this juxtaposition of plain and simple building without and opulence within.
CROSTHWAITE: ST KENTIGERN – primarily a church of the mid-16th century, it houses a memorial to the poet Robert Southey
BURGH-BY-SANDS † St Michael
5m/8km N.W. of Carlisle
OS NY328591 GPS 54.9221N, 3.0489W
Built largely of stone from the Roman wall and strongly defensive against the Scots – particularly the broad 14th-century tower with its iron gate to the nave – St Michael’s is largely Norman and Early English. 1½ miles to the N.W. is a monument to Edward I, who died whilst encamped on Burgh Marsh in 1307.
CARTMEL
† St Mary the Virgin and St Michael
2m/3km W. of Grange-over-Sands
OS SD379787 GPS 54.2012N, 2.9523W
Among the fields of a pleasant little town in a wide valley of the Cartmel Peninsula stands what was once Lancashire’s finest parish church, part of a long-vanished priory. It is a massive Transitional cruciform building with 15th-century Perpendicular windows installed when the upper stage of the central tower was added. The crossing arches are pointed, but the chancel arcades are still round. The S. choir aisle, rebuilt c. 1350, has good Decorated windows. There are magnificent Renaissance screens and stall canopies of 1618 restoration, after it had stood roofless for 80 years, and fine choir stalls with misericords. Many monuments include 14th-century Harrington effigies, and that to Dame Katherine Lowther – a fine Baroque work of 1700.
CARTMEL FELL † St Anthony
6m/10km S.W. of Kendal
OS SD416880 GPS 54.2849N, 2.8977W
This small, low, rustic limestone church of 1503 is cut into the fell side. The windows are mullioned and there is a saddleback tower. Inside are two very handsome screened pews and a three-decker pulpit of 1698; the 15th-century glass is from Cartmel Priory. All very charming in its simplicity.
GRASMERE: ST OSWALD – the two-tier arcade in the nave; the church is the burial place of another of the ‘Lake Poets’, William Wordsworth
CROSSCANONBY † St John the Evangelist
3m/4km N.E. of Maryport
OS NY069390 GPS 54.7374N, 3.4472W
This is a Norman church that incorporates Roman stones. Other stones include a hogback gravestone, carved like a little house of the dead, and a 10th-century cross fragment with dragons biting themselves. The South aisle was added in the 13th century. The tomb of John Smith, local salt tax collector, is a reminder of the importance of the nearby coastal salt pans, which produced salt over some 700 years.
CROSTHWAITE † St Kentigern
½m/1km N.W. of Keswick
OS NY257242 GPS 54.6083N, 3.1512W
The present church, built on an ancient site, achieved its present form c. 1553, though it includes 14th-century arches. Twelve consecration crosses outside and nine inside were found in 1915. A recumbent white marble carving of the 19th-century Poet Laureate Robert Southey, by J. G. Lough, bears an epitaph written by William Wordsworth. The church was restored as part of the memorial to Southey by Sir George Gilbert Scott, and the Baptistry is a memorial to Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley, Vicar here for 34 years, founder of the National Trust, lifelong friend of John Ruskin and mentor to a young Beatrix Potter.
DALTON-IN-FURNESS † St Mary
4m/6km N.E. of Barrow-in-Furness
OS SD225738 GPS 54.1549N, 3.1870W
By Paley & Austin, 1882–5, this is a spectacular Decorated sandstone church with large W. tower and jolly limestone diapering. The assymetrical interior has octagonal piers and a broad moulded chancel arch.
DEARHAM † St Mungo
Suburb, 2m/3km E. of Maryport
OS NY072363 GPS 54.7140N, 3.4413W
This is a 12th- and 13th-century church with a Pele tower used as a refuge during cross-border skirmishes with the Scots. Inside is a carved Norman font and copious Anglo-Danish sculpture, including the Kenneth Cross and the Adam Stone, both found during a late 19th-century restoration.
KENDAL: HOLY TRINITY – a fine array of Perpendicular windows stretch across the east end
GOSFORTH † St Mary
2m/3km N.E. of Seascale
OS NY072035 GPS 54.4193N, 3.4313W
A red sandstone church, St Mary’s was mostly rebuilt in the Decorated style in 1896–9. Inside are two 10th-century Norse hogback tombs, carved with battle scenes, and in the churchyard stands the wondrous Gosforth Cross, a soaring Anglo-Norse creation of the later 10th century. The cross is 14 ft in height; the lower part of its shaft is round and represents the ash tree Yggdrasil, which in Norse lore is the tree that supports the universe.
GRASMERE † St Oswald
3m/4km N.W. of Ambleside
OS NY337073 GPS 54.4575N, 3.0236W
Wordsworth and members of his family are buried in the churchyard, and Woolner’s monument to the poet is in the church. The rough, massive old church has a notable two-tier arcade, the upper dating from the 17th century. The resulting jungle of black beams is an object lesson in elementary building, ingenious and almost indescribable except by Wordsworth, who had a shot at most things, and declared that the roof was upheld: ‘By naked rafters intricately crossed / Like leafless underboughs, mid some thick grove / All withered by the depth of shade above.’ A curiously partisan feature of being the parish church for Grasmere, Rydal and Langdale is that each has its own separate entrance into the churchyard.
GREYSTOKE † St Andrew
5m/8km W. of Penrith
OS NY443307 GPS 54.6691N, 2.8646W
Made collegiate in 1382, the church is vast and gracious. The chancel arch is Early English, otherwise all mostly 15th-century. The tower and chancel were rebuilt in 1848. There are 20 canons’ stalls with interesting misericords and 15th-century glass in the the E. window. Of the Victorian glass, that by Kempe is the most interesting; on the W wall is a 20th-century figure of the crucified Christ by the Brazilian-born sculptress Josefina de Vasconcellos, whose work also adorns St Paul’s Cathedral in London, as well as Liverpool and Gloucester cathedrals.
ISEL: ST MICHAEL– the fabric of the church is largely Norman
ISEL † St Michael
4m/6km N.E. of Cockermouth
OS NY162333 GPS 54.6879N, 3.3008W
St Michael’s is a largely Norman church, with a 15th-century window bearing three sundials to mark the monastic hours. The chancel arch stonework is reminiscent (at a very small scale) of St Bees Priory. The Anglo-Danish cross shaft bearing the rare three-armed symbol known as the triskele, one of the earliest symbols found on Christian monuments, was stolen in 1986. The old church stands on the banks of the Derwent, and nearby is an ancient bridge of three arches, rebuilt in 1812. The church thankfully survived the catastrophic flooding of 2009.
KENDAL † Holy Trinity
Between Kirkland and river
OS SD516921 GPS 54.3225N, 2.7443W
This prosperous Perpendicular town church stands, nearly as broad as York Minster, above the River Kent, and is Cumbria’s largest parish church. Nothing is older than the 13th century here and most dates from the 15th century. Five aisles and 32 pillars create the impression of a walk through a stone forest. The 20th century is well served by Josefina de Vasconcellos’ moving sculpture The Family of Man, situated near the E. window of the northernmost aisle.
KIRKANDREWS-ON-ESK † St Andrew
1m/2km N. of Longtown, 8m/12km N. of Carlisle
OS NY391719 GPS 55.0386N, 2.9543W
In an attractive setting, St Andrew’s is an estate church of local red sandstone. It was built in fine style in 1776 by the Rev. Robert Graham of Netherby Hall, which the church overlooks across the River Esk. The interior was sensitively restored by Temple Moore in 1893, when the Italianate chancel screen, reredos and new organ were provided.
KIRKBY LONSDALE † St Mary the Virgin
14m/22km N.E. of Lancaster
OS SD611788 GPS 54.2037N, 2.5975W
Hidden behind Market Street in this enjoyable small town, the church is approached through 19th-century iron gates below an iron arch. In a lovely setting in the Lune Valley, the view from the churchyard is perhaps the finest in the county, praised by Ruskin, painted by Turner and endlessly satisfying. The church has been much modified since its days of Norman greatness from which, however, it retains S. and W. doorways. The latter is a fine example of late Norman work, recessed in four orders and much enriched with zigzags and other ornaments. In the N. arcade are three powerful early Norman piers and arches bearing Durham-style diapering. There is a charming six-sided pulpit of 1619, and, in the S. aisle, glass of Faith, Hope and Charity by Henry Holiday, who took over from Edward Burne-Jones as stained glass designer at Powell’s Glass Works when Burne-Jones left to work for Morris & Co.
LANERCOST PRIORY – it became a parish church in the 18th century, when the main surviving parts of the former priory were restored
KIRKBY STEPHEN † St Stephen
9m/15km S.E. of Appleby-in-Westmorland
OS NY775088 GPS 54.4742N, 2.3484W
Known as ‘The Cathedral of the Dales’, St Stephen’s was probably founded in the 8th century. Rebuilt in the 13th and 15th centuries, it was heavily restored in 1847. Stately and impressive Early English arcades separate the nave from the aisles. The embattled W. tower of c. 1506 replaced a central Early English tower which fell in the 15th century. Inside, an 18th-century bread cupboard is curved around a pier and there are 15th- and 16th-century monuments to the Musgraves and Whartons. Most interesting of all is the Loki stone, a relief carving of the Norse God of Mischief.
KIRKBY THORE † St Michael
8m/13km S.W. of Penrith
OS NY638259 GPS 54.6273N, 2.5621W
In the lovely Eden Valley, this is a simple church of red sandstone. The base of the tower is early Norman, while the chancel, nave and upper parts of the tower are 13th-century. There is reused stone from the nearby Roman fort of Bravoniacum incorporated into the fabric. Inside is a pulpit made of reused finely carved 17th-century panels, and an octagonal font of 1688. The rather odd pointed and moulded chancel arch is from a Victorian restoration, and the bell, said to be the county’s largest, is thought to have come from Shap Abbey.
KIRKOSWALD † St Oswald
7m/11km N. of Penrith
OS NY555409 GPS 54.7611N, 2.6928W
The little sandstone town with its moated castle and house, now a museum, is one of the best in the county. Like many churches dedicated to St Oswald, this one is associated with a spring, but it is almost certainly the only one in which a pure spring of water rises from the conical hill at the foot of which the church stands, flows under the length of the nave and issues as a drinking-well outside the W. wall. The tower of 1897 stands oddly at the top of the hill 200 yards away from the church, which has interesting medieval fabric and a collegiate chancel of c. 1523.
LANERCOST
† Priory of St Mary Magdalene
3m/4km N.E. of Brampton
OS NY555637 GPS 54.9662N, 2.6952W
Beautifully situated in the quiet wooded valley of the River Irthing and entered through an ancient gatehouse, the nave and N. aisle of the priory were restored and refitted in the 18th century to serve as the parish church. The priory was founded about 1169 by Robert de Vallibus (de Vaux). Edward I, Queen Eleanor, Robert the Bruce and David King of Scotland cross and re-cross its history in the 14th century. The earliest portions, such as the base course on the S. of nave and transept, are Transitional; the remainder elegant Early English. It has a beautiful clerestory and W. front with bold recessed doorway and arcading. Inside are Burne-Jones lancets in rich colours, and monuments by Boehm; in the S. chapel is the tomb of Lord Dacre of Battle of Flodden fame. The E. end of the present church, built after the priory was dismantled, has a little 16th-century glass, but is mostly clear. In low evening sunlight, the priory glows: a place of magic.
LONG MARTON † St Margaret & St James
3m/4km N. of Appleby-in-Westmorland
OS NY666239 GPS 54.6100N, 2.5177W
The building is early Romanesque in origin, especially the nave with huge quoins. Parts of the S. doorway, with its crude tympanum adorned with winged beast and dragon, might be as early, but this part of the church was reset during a 19th-century restoration.
LOWTHER † St Michael
4m/6km S. of Penrith
oS NY519244 GPS 54.6129N, 2.7462W
Beautifully placed above the River Lowther, the church has portions dating from the 12th, 13th and 17th centuries. The shell was almost completely rebuilt by Sir John Lowther in the 17th century with a dome and lantern on the tower, unfortunately since removed. The church has some splendid Lowther monuments, including William Stanton’s John, Viscount Lonsdale, d. 1700, a fine semi-reclining figure now behind the organ. Outside, in rather dismal isolation, a figure of the 2nd Earl – William – is seated in a frankly sinister late 19th-century mausoleum.
MARTINDALE † St Martin Old Church
In hills above Ullswater, 10m/16km S.W. of Penrith
OS NY434184 GPS 54.5577N, 2.8761W
One of the loneliest churches in Cumbria, St Martin’s stands at 1,000 feet above the sea; it was for a time disused. The Old Church, originally 11th-century, was renewed in 1633. With its simple bellcote, porch and rustic slatework, it has an almost domestic appearance; inside is 17th-century woodwork, a good carved pulpit and massive beams. It is used for services about three times a year and has neither heating nor electricity; it is often visited by walkers seeking peace and solitude.
MARTINDALE † St Peter New Church
In hills above Ullswater, 10m/16km S.W. of Penrith
OS NY436191 GPS 54.5644N, 2.8736W
With only a few farms for company at the top of the Hause Pass, the present church of St Peter was erected in a sort of Early English style in 1880–82 by B. Cory. There is good 20th-century glass by Jane Grey. Another 20th-century window, dedicated to St Nicholas, commemorates the loss of HMS Glorious off the Norwegian coast during the Second World War.
MILLOM † Holy Trinity
N. of Millom town centre,
5m/8km S.W. of Broughton-in-Fumess
OS SD171813 GPS 54.2207N, 3.2728W
This late Norman sandstone church shelters against the ruins of the 13th-century castle. There is some later medieval work, including Curvilinear and Reticulated window tracery. The Victorian restoration did the church no favours, but a 12th- to 13th-century chancel arch remains, and in the Huddleston Chapel there is a fine alabaster monument, 1494, commemorating Richard Huddleston and his wife Lady Mabel Dacre.
ORTON: ALL SAINTS – the church is dominated by the limewashed Perpendicular tower
MILLOM † St George
St George’s Road, town centre;
5m/8km S.W. of Broughton-in-Fumess
OS SD171799 GPS 54.2089N, 3.2717W
Inspired perhaps by the rapid expansion of Millom through mining and ironworks in the late 19th century, the new church of St George was built by Paley & Austin in an elaborate Decorated style, with blind arcades and geometric tracery. There is a fine central tower with recessed spire – a landmark visible for miles around – and a good wagon roof to the nave. Stained glass commemorates the life of the poet Norman Nicholson, who is buried in the nearby town cemetery.
MORLAND † St Lawrence
6m/10km W. of Appleby-in-Westmorland
OS NY598225 GPS 54.5965N, 2.6235W
This delightful church has a fine Saxon W. tower. Its plan is unusual: nave, N. and S. transepts are mostly Norman, the chancel was rebuilt in the 16th century. From outside the church has the look of a miniature minster, and is beautifully set adjacent to Morland House and gardens.
NETHER WASDALE † St Michael
15m/8km N.E. of Seascale
OS NY124040 GPS 54.4245N, 3.3504W
St Michael’s plain external appearance conceals a surprisingly elegant, simple, gas-lit Georgian interior, with plaster reliefs of cherubs on the coved ceiling. It was originally a chapel of ease for St Bees Priory, and dates from the 16th century – a single-cell building with bellcote. The pulpit and lectern came from York Minster, and there are traces of wall-paintings on the S. wall.
ORMSIDE † St James
2m/3km S.E. of Appleby-in-Westmorland
across R. Eden
OS NY701176 GPS 54.5532N, 2.4632W
Strikingly situated on a conical knoll W. of the River Eden with fine views of Roman Fell, St James’s is predominantly Norman and no-nonsense, with a robust Scot-repelling tower only 11 feet square. The arcade to the N. aisle is formed of stout columns topped with crudely carved capitals, and the oak king-post chancel roof is 400 years old. Set in the N. chancel wall is a 14th-century hagioscope. The famous 9th-century Ormside Bowl, a Saxon treasure of gold and enamel, was dug up in the churchyard in 1823, and is now in York Museum.
ORTON † All Saints
12m/18km N.E. of Kendal
OS NY622083 GPS 54.4695N, 2.5845W
On a site that has grand views towards Orton Scar and the Howgills, the white-washed rustic Perpendicular tower of the church is unmissable, supported by bulky stepped buttresses. The bulk of the church is 13th-century, its nave and aisles long, broad and low, with roof lights set over the chancel arch (the old crossing). The 1662 font is carved out of sandstone, and of particular note is a charming window in the baptistry by Beatrice Whistler, wife of the painter J. MacNeill Whistler. The principal restoration was by Paley and Austin, 1877, and there is good 19th-century glass.
PENRITH † St Andrew
Between Friargate and Market Square
OS NY516301 GPS 54.6642N, 2.7511W
Hawksmoor modelled his designs for this stately red sandstone Classical church of 1720–2 on St Andrew’s Church in Holborn. The 13th-century W. tower was retained from the earlier church on the site. The nave has two tiers of round-arched windows and a Tuscan doorway through the base of the tower. Inside are three galleries on Tuscan columns, an elegant tower staircase and a large Venetian E. window. Wall-paintings in the chancel are by Jacob Thompson. Outside in the churchyard is the Giant’s Thumb, a Norse cross from 920, erected as a memorial to his father by Owen Caesarius, King of Cumbria 920–37. There is also a cluster of hogback stones.
RAVENSTONEDALE † St Oswald
4m/6km S.W. of Kirkby Stephen
OS NY722042 GPS 54.4330N, 2.4296W
Approached by a long straight path, the church is delightfully set among imposing trees among the moorland heights, overlooking the Scandel Beck. Fragments of the old church were incorporated in the present Georgian structure of 1738–44. The almost intact Georgian interior has a three-decker pulpit, benches arranged in collegiate fashion, facing into the central aisle, Royal Arms, text boards and a W. gallery. Beyond the N. wall outside are remains of the Gilbertine Abbey, built here c. 1200.
ST BEES – the weathered but magnificent carving around the west doorway
ST BEES † Priory/St Mary and St Bega
4m/6km S. of Whitehaven
OS NX968121 GPS 54.4939N, 3.5935W
This is a cruciform monastic church of soft red sandstone with a choir of six bays, transepts, central tower and clerestoried nave of c. 1250. Although much restored, the church is unassailably imposing. The original E. end was not demolished during the Reformation and now forms part of the school library. The Norman W. front is magnificent, and the three principal orders of the doorway are carved with rich chevron mouldings and beak-heads. Inside are many pre-Conquest carved stones. W. Butterfield restored the tower space and transepts in 1855–8 and built the Romanesque spire; he later added the fine Art Nouveau wrought-iron chancel screen.
ULPHA: ST JOHN – a church of rustic appeal and solitude
WREAY: ST MARY – carvings of flora and fauna abound in the architectural details
TORPENHOW † St Michael
6m/10km S.W. of Wigton
OS NY205398 GPS 54.7469N, 3.2353W
A church with superb views of Solway, Scotland, Lake District and Pennines, St Michael’s is a broad-shouldered, bulky building with a finialled bellcote. Norman in origin, it retains many fine Norman features, of which the chancel arch is undoubtedly the best, with red sandstone carvings of demonic figures on the N. side, whilst on the S. side of the arch are human figures and animals in a lighter sandstone. The wooden nave ceiling is Baroque, brought here by Thomas Addison in the late 17th century. It is adorned with painted flowers, cherubs and scrolls, and is believed to have come from a livery hall in London. Odd and completely out of place, but with a certain eccentric charm.
ULPHA † St John
4m/6km N. of Broughton-in-Furness
OS SD198932 GPS 54.3285N, 3.2347W
A lovely old simple church, more or less as Wordsworth knew it, with fragments of 18th-century decoration and old timbers in a black and white roof. It is built of local stone in a beautiful spot, overlooking the River Duddon. See Wordsworth’s sonnets on the subject, especially the one beginning ‘The Kirk of Ulpha to the pilgrim’s eye’.
URSWICK † St Mary and St Michael
3m/4km E. of Dalton-in-Furness
OS SD268741 GPS 54.1583N, 3.1218W
This ancient church overlooks Urswick Tarn, and has a massive 13th-century (possibly Pele) tower with Perpendicular top stage. The aisleless nave with fine rustic king-post timber roof is dated 1598. There is an enigmatic and interesting carved 9th-century runic stone, but the exciting thing here is the woodwork: lots of it, very fine, carved in 1909–12 by Alec Miller to the designs of C. R Ashby at the Guild of Handicrafts.
WABERTHWAITE † St John the Baptist
1m/2km S.E. of Ravenglass across R. Esk, 6m/10km S.E. of Seascale
OS SD100951 GPS 54.3436N, 3.3855W
A lonely, simple and typical dale church, snug under Muncaster Fell and a surrounding screen of trees, the church is tucked into a bend of the upper reaches of the Esk estuary. It has a homely unadorned interior, lit by oil lamps and furnished with box pews, Royal Arms, a 17th-century pulpit and Norman font. Outside is an Anglo-Norse cross shaft from the 9th or 10th century. This is a perfect setting for a tiny church.
WHITEHAVEN † St James
High Street
OS NX976184 GPS 54.5508N, 3.5834W
St James’s Church overlooks the town – a Georgian statement to Whitehaven’s coal-fuelled prosperity in the 18th century. It was designed by Carlisle Spedding, principal colliery steward to Sir James Lowther. Outwardly rather dour, the interior is superb. Stucco roundels decorate the pastel (1970) ceiling, and the rows of Classical pillars supporting the three galleries lead to a domed apse and a beautiful painted altarpiece of the Transfiguration by Correggio’s pupil Procaccini.
WIGTON † St Mary
11m/18km S.W. of Carlisle
OS NY255482 GPS 54.8238N, 3.1595W
Built in 1788, the church is a triumph of painting inside. The work of the Rev. John Ford in the 1950s, it is a study in grey, gold and strawberry-pink. There is a handsome pulpit with swags. Nothing of the church it replaced remains, except traces of original stonework used in nearby buildings.
WREAY: ST MARY – a unique work of the mid-19th century by Sara Losh, who designed and crafted the church as a memorial to her sister
WITHERSLACK † St Paul
6m/10km S.W. of Kendal
OS SD431841 GPS 54.2502N, 2.8736W
The church was built and endowed in 1669 by John Berwick, a Royalist who became Dean of St Paul’s, and his brother, who was physician to Charles ll. The roof was raised in 1768. Pews, rails and other fittings were added in the 19th century. The marble figure of a baby, Geoffrey Stanley, who died as an infant in 1871, sleeps on one window sill. There are good hatchments with angles at the corners, and a fine Royal Arms of Queen Anne with a jolly lion. The canopied pulpit was once a three-decker, and the altar table is 17th-century. The plain white Classical interior is a perfect foil to the romantic setting of hanging woods and limestone outcrop.
WREAY † St Mary
5m/8km S.E. of Carlisle
OS NY435489 GPS 54.8319N, 2.8807W
Pevsner called Wreay the best in church architecture during the years of Queen Victoria. It was designed by talented amateur Sara Losh as a memorial to her sister Katherine, d. 1835. The church was consecrated in 1842 and is of unique design, drawing on Losh’s European travels and unusually extensive education. The result is what Jenkins calls a ‘Lombardic’ church, rich in Italian Romanesque and early Christian ideas. Local masons were employed, and there is abundant exotic sculpture. Excellent details include the W. doorway, enriched with flowers, birds and beetles, the green marble altar table, supported by brass eagles, and the alabaster font, mostly carved by Sara herself. All here prefigures the Arts and Crafts movement by almost 50 years. In the churchyard is the cyclopean mausoleum for Katherine.
