Gents Mag 1849 part 1 p.253

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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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