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St John, Cowgill
St John's Church
Cowgill Chapel
Kirkthwaite Chapel
locality:-   Cowgill
civil parish:-   Dent (formerly Yorkshire)
county:-   Cumbria
locality type:-   church
coordinates:-   SD75608695
1Km square:-   SD7586
10Km square:-   SD78


photograph
BMG68.jpg (taken 16.6.2006)  
photograph
CCX63.jpg (taken 23.4.2015)  

evidence:-   old map:- OS County Series (Yrk 64 15) 
placename:-  St John's Church
source data:-   Maps, County Series maps of Great Britain, scales 6 and 25 inches to 1 mile, published by the Ordnance Survey, Southampton, Hampshire, from about 1863 to 1948.


photograph
CCX62.jpg (taken 23.4.2015)  

 stained glass

 kneelers

evidence:-   database:- Listed Buildings 2010
placename:-  Church of St John the Evangelist
source data:-  
courtesy of English Heritage
"CHURCH OF ST JOHN THE EVANGELIST / / / DENT / SOUTH LAKELAND / CUMBRIA / II / 484266 / SD7560286947"
source data:-  
courtesy of English Heritage
"Formerly known as: Kirkthwaite Chapel DENTDALE."
"Formerly known as: Cowgill Chapel DENTDALE."
"Church. 1837-8. Coursed sandstone rubble, slate roof. Early English style. Six-bay nave with west bellcote and short 1-bay chancel with attached vestry in north angle."
"EXTERIOR: simple buttresses to three-quarter height, one tall lancet in each bay except the first, which is wider and has a gabled wooden porch protecting a 2-centred arched doorway, and a square slated bellcote on the ridge with wooden louvres and a steep pyramidal roof with a weathervane. The west gable has a short central buttress flanked by lancets and an oculus above and between these. The chancel has a stepped triple-lancet east window."
"INTERIOR: single vessel with very small sanctuary; plastered walls; scissor roof trusses with kingposts; pitch-pine benches; organ in south-east corner. The south wall has 3 arched marble wall monuments commemorating members of the Elam family: (1) Robert Elam C.E., d.1855 at Thorns Hall (Sedbergh CP, qv); (2) John Elam, Deputy Lieutenant and Justice of the Peace for the West Riding of Yorkshire, d.1862 at Thorns Hall; (3) Catherine Elam, d.1874 and Lucy Elam, d.1883, both at Thorns Hall. (See also Monument to Lucy Elam, Dentdale, qv). The north wall has a sculpted wall monument with a seated angel inscribed "G.Nelson, Sculp." commemorating: Anne, widow of John Blackmore, d.1888 at Broadfield House (qv), her father Paul Nixon of Stone House (qv), d.1850, Anne his wife, d.1849, and also George Nelson, sculptor, died London 1888; and a smaller monument commemorating Dora Blackmore, d.1890 at Broadfield House."
"HISTORICAL NOTE: the subject of Professor Adam Sedgwick's "A Memorial to Cowgill Chapel" (1868): a plea for the ancient name of Cowgill to be retained. Forms group with associated gate piers (qv)."

evidence:-   database:- Listed Buildings 2010
source data:-  
courtesy of English Heritage
"GATE PIERS AND GATES TO CHURCHYARD OF CHURCH OF ST JOHN THE EVANGELIST / / / DENT / SOUTH LAKELAND / CUMBRIA / II / 484267 / SD7562086935"
source data:-  
courtesy of English Heritage
"Pair of gate piers and gates to churchyard. Probably 1838. Monolithic sandstone gate piers, wrought-iron gates. Gothic style. Octagonal piers with a cusped panel in each side and pointed cap; pair of gates with swept top rails, spear-headed bars and dog-bars. Forms group with Church of St John the Evangelist (qv)."

incumbents:-  
Matthews, William  1839 - 1863 
Cox, W  1863 - 1864 
Sumner, J  1864 - 1870 
Sale, E  1870 - 1871 
Adams, D  1871 - 1879 
Towers, G  1880 - 1884 
Pickering, R  1885 - 1915 


photograph
CCX65.jpg  Mothers Union banner.
(taken 23.4.2015)  
photograph
CCX66.jpg  Organ, by T Hopkins and Son, York.
(taken 23.4.2015)  
photograph
CCX67.jpg  Organ, makers plate,
"T. HOPKINS &SON / YORK" (taken 23.4.2015)  
photograph
CCX68.jpg  Memorial, probably made of local marble.
(taken 23.4.2015)  
photograph
CCX69.jpg  Memorial, sculptor George Nelson.
(taken 23.4.2015)  
photograph
CCX76.jpg  Font, perhaps local marble?
(taken 23.4.2015)  

hearsay:-  
This is now a CofE church, built 1838 on the site of a nonconformist chapel., Cowgill or Kirkthwaite Chapel.
The foundation stone of Cowgill Chapel was laid by Adam Sedgwick, 1837, close by where his sister had begun a Sunday School, 20 years before:-
"... We began by making the rocks echo back the old hundredth Psalms; my brother read one or two short prayers from our liturgy; Mr. Wilson made a short address; I handled the trowel, and laid the stone, and then addressed my countrymen ..."
The name of Kirkthwaite Chapel was a misnaming by an ecclesiastical official who thought Cowgill too uncouth. It took a lot of pressure, finally the sending of a pamphlet to Victoria, to get the proper name reinstituted by Act of Parliament in 1869.

Speakman, Colin: 1982: Adam Sedgwick: Broadoak Press & Geological Society of London &Trinity College, Cambridge:: ISBN 0 906716 01 2

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