Old Cumbria Gazetteer - churches, Cumbria



	churches, Cumbria
county:-	Cumbria
also see:-	baptists, Cumbria methodists, Cumbria quakers, Cumbria

	Of All Denominations
	A church is one of the elements that defines a village, a community. We have tried to list all the churches belonging to the established church in Cumbria, and have included other chapels of various denominations when we have found them. The Quaker movement began here in the North and their meetings are listed fairly thoroughly as a separate topic.
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	Where possible there is a photograph of the church and interior (a few churches seem never to be open except for services) and various features of interest inside and outside; stained glass, organs, multiple deck pulpits, royal coats of arms and other heraldry, hatchments, parish chests, poor boxes, cross slabs, a Mothers Union banner, perhaps the kneelers, etc. I am grateful to numerous kind ladies on the flower or cleaning rota for their help in access.
	In lieu of effective local history museums, churches are a depository of local antiquities, though items are often disregarded and hidden behind more current notices of events and societies.

evidence:-	old text:- Wordsworth 1810
source data:-	Guide book, A Description of the Scenery of the Lakes, later A Guide through the District of The Lakes, by William Wordsworth, 1810-35. goto source page 44 "... a population, mainly of Danish or Norse origin, as the dialect indicates, crept on towards the more secluded parts of the vallies. Chapels, daughters of some distant mother church, are first erected in the more open and fertile vales, as those of Bowness and Grasmere, offsets of Kendal: which again, after a period, as the settled population increases, become mother-churches to smaller edifices, planted, at length, in almost every dale throughout the country. ..." "..." goto source page 55 "Upon this subject I have nothing further to notice, except the PLACES OF WORSHIP, which have mostly a little school-house adjoining. The architecture of these churches and chapels, where they have not been recently rebuilt or modernised, is of a style not less appropriate and admirable than that of the dwelling-houses and other structures. How sacred the spirit by which our forefathers were directed! The religio loci is no where violated by these unstinted, yet unpretending, works of human hands. They exhibit generally a well-proportioned oblong, with a suitable porch, in some instances a steeple tower, and in others nothing more than a small belfry, in which one or two bells hang visibly. But these objects, though pleasing in their forms, must" goto source page 56 "necessarily, more than others in rural scenery, derive their interest from the sentiments of piety and reverence for the modest virtues and simple manners of humble life with which they may be contemplated. ..."

references:-	: 2004 (and other years): Diocese of Carlisle, Directory 2004/5: (Diocesan Office, Carlisle, Cumbria) Cox, J C: 1913: Country Churches, Cumberland and Westmorland: (London) Bellasis, Edward: 1888=`889: Westmorland Church Notes: Wilson, Titus (Kendal, Westmorland): 2 vols Butler, David M: 1978: Quaker Meeting Houses of the Lake Counties: Friends Historical Society Butler, David M: 1999: Quaker Meeting Houses of Britain: Friends Historical Society: 2 vols: ISBN 0 900469 43 9 Butler, Lawrence (ed): 2011: Church Notes of Sir Stephen Glynne for Cumbria, 1833-1872: CWAAS:: ISBN 978 1 873124 52 9 Cross, F L (ed) &Livingstone, E A (ed): 1974 (2nd edn): Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church: Oxford University Press (London) Pevsner, Nikolaus: 1967: Cumberland Westmorland: Penguin Books (London) Pevsner, Nikolaus: 1969: North Lancashire: Penguin Books (London) Ricketts, Shiela: 1994: Lakeland Churches, a Visitors Guide: Ellenbank Press (Maryport, Cumbria):: ISBN 1 873551 09 6 Salter, Mike: 1998: Old Parish Churches of Cumbria: Folly Publications (West Malvern, Worcestershire):: ISBN 1 871371 35 6 Stell, Christopher: 1994: Inventory of Nonconformist Chapels and Meeting Houses in the North of England: RCHM &HMSO (London):: ISBN 0 11 300041 3

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