button to main menu  Gents Mag 1849 part 1 p.257

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Gentleman's Magazine 1849 part 1 p.257
anew, and the natural reddish hue of the stone brought to light with warm and becoming effect, to which the plaster on the walls was tinted to harmonize.
The roofs, which are of low pitch, were entirely reconstructed, the expense of that of the nave, which is open to the ridge, being defrayed at the general cost of the parishioners. It is, together with the wood-work of the whole, save the exceptions already and afterwards mentioned, composed of the best Baltic deal, stained and varished to look like oak. The tie-beams, which are triangular in form, with the point hanging down, have many convex and ogee mouldings; they rest on the walls, where their ends are hidden by projecting architraves or cornices of wood, of similar mouldings, that flank each wall and give an appearance of greater height to the roof. Short curved braces, resting on the tie-beams, support the moulded ribs of the principal rafters, immediately underneath the intersections of the purlins or bars; these, lying horizontally, divide each bay into panels, that are subdivided into narrow longitudinal divisions by the plain inclined rectangular bars forming the common rafters, over which they are boarded.
The chancel roof presents a continuity of form and design, but the architraves and tie-beams being more massive and ornately moulded, as well as embattled on their upper edges, it offers a bolder and more enriched construction. It is divided into four bays, and the first and last tie-beams partly rest on curved spandrils that die away below into stone corbels, which rest on carved heads that spring from the walls.
The roofs of the aisles are like that of the nave, except that there are neither tie-beams nor braces, and that the architrave which flanks the top of each wall is of lighter dimensions; they are likewise formed into panels by moulded horizontal purlins, which, at the intersection of the principal rafters, and also at the joining of the rafters to the walls, are tied with ornamental bosses of carved flowers and foliage, mingled with church emblems, and the shields of arms of gentry in the neighbourhood. The roof at the east end of the north aisle of the chancel, over the pew belonging to Ormathwaite Hall, is more elaborately adorned, the architrave on the flank wall of that part of the aisle being deeper and more profusely moulded, and terminated at each end by the graceful figure of an angel, finely carved in wood; such enrichments being intended to replace the ruder style of decoration that formerly distinguished this pew.
At the western end of the south aisle is the vestry, separated from the aisle by a high, close-paneled wainscot or scrren, of characteristic design, surmounted by a cornice, whose upper edge is likewise embattled.
The interior was newly seated; the benches in the nave, which are all open except two, have plain, slightly-raised frame-ends, and all but one face to the east.
The stalls in the chancel are twenty in number; eight of them likewise look towards the east, and the remaineder, together with the open benches in that division of the church, which are further distinguished by high raised ends terminated by carved finials, and those in its aisles which have only slightly rasied ends, face either north or south. The benches in the chancel have carved panels in front, of uniform design, and, with the other seats and fittings-up in this portion of the church and its aisles, are all of oak. The turn of the arms of the stalls, and of the benches in the chancel and its aisles, together with the poppy-heads of the chancel seats, are adorned with carvings of foliage, fruit, and flowers, intermingled with the heads of saints and angels, and mystical devices symbolic of Scriptural subjects, finely and even delicately executed, the whole thus preserving an agreeable unity of style with the architectural and ornamental embellishments throughout the church.The Lord's table, chairs, and rails, are carved in a corresponding pattern, and the cloth and cushions on the table and around the rails are of murrey-coloured velvet, the former being edged with gold-lace and fringe. The area within the rails is boarded, and covered with a carpet of the same colour; and in the south wall, near the angle formed with the east endwall, is a plain and perfect piscina with a segmental head. The screen or
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