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Gentleman's Magazine 1849 part 1 p.253
inroads had again made hurtful attacks on the stability of
the structure, and its general state of decay was such as to
afford matter for serious consideration. The roof of 1812
had become infirm, and in danger of falling in; and the
exterior walls likewise proclaimed it to be in a rapidly
progressive state of decrepitude. The rude old pews and
forms, which were placed in every variety of position, had
become rickety with age. An ossuary, or charnel vault,
filled to the top with the remains of mortality, occupied
the west end of the north aisle. The mullions and glass in
the windows were broken, and otherwise defective, in many
places. The Derwentwater effigies, removed from their
original situation, lay exposed to harmful treatment near
the door at the principal entrance. The Lord's Table was a
plain massive plank of oak, set on four equally unornamented
legs; and the whole interior was deeply encrusted with the
plastering and whitewash of centuries. The stone-seated
porch was old and crazy. The door was of strong oaken plank,
three inches thick, studded with iron nails, and braced with
long strong hinges, both internally and externally, of the
same material. Embedded in it were found several leaden
balls; and there appeared marks in two or three places as if
at some distant day it had been pierced with cannon shot, it
being considered that nothing but a circular missile,
projected with extreme force, could have cut holes so clean
and round where the shot had struck and splintered on the
inside, where, with exhausted impetus, they had torn the
wood. Of the time in which such violence was committed
record and hearsay are alike silent, leaving it to be
surmised as not unlikely to have occurred during the
disastrous epoch of the civil wars in the seventeenth
century, when , it is known, even this retired district did
not escape outrage from the conflict of parties.
Such was the condition and aspect of the church, when Mr.
Stanger of Lairthwaite, a gentleman of wealth, returned to
the parish, of which his forefathers had been inhabitants -
induced by those pious impulses which in earlier ages urged
the great and humble alike to contribute to the erection of
religious houses, proposed to restore and embellish it,
principally at his own expense. Like as unto the Holy David,
to whom it appeared unseemly that the Ark of God should
"remain under curtains" whilst he "dwelt in a house of
cedar," Mr. Stanger lamented to behold the fabric sanctified
in the affections of so many generations in such a state of
dilapidation and decay; with a munificence therefore that
might vie with the most earnest feelings of those zealous
ages when men were not niggardly of their means to make the
house of God worthy of the holy object for which it was
designed, he resolved on its perfect renovation, and from
thenceforth until its completion the undertaking was a
principal subject of his thought and care.
Having obtained the consent of the parishioners, as well as
the necessary ecclesiastical authorization, the commission
of restoration was entrusted to Mr. George Gilbert Scott, an
eminent architect, whose taste in church architecture is
only equalled by his knowledge and skill; and from his
designs the church has arisen to its present finished state
of renewed beauty and adornment; the whole cost, with the
exception of 400l. subscribed among the parishioners
for the expense of the roof of the nave, being defrayed by
Mr. Stanger.
The plans for the restoration having been decided upon, the
first operation engaged in was to empty the charnel vault of
the collection there heaped up of the relics of frail
humanity, which were all carefully removed, and deposited in
deep holes on the east side of the churchyard. The walls
which separated this osseous receptacle from the nave and
aisle were then taken down, and the space occupied thrown
open to its pristine use. The singers' gallery, the pews,
the altar-table and rails, the reading-desk and the pulpit,
were taken away and sold; the last mentioned article, which
was of oak elaborately carved, being bought for the chapel
in Newlands. The flags were taken up, and the underlying
earth, which for unnoted generations had been used as a
place of sepulture, excavate, and transferred with all its
contents - except the remains in the vaults of the families
of Stephenson
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