Ennerdale: St Mary

Name:
Ennerdale: St Mary
Record Type:
Church
Church code:
607293
Diocese:
Carlisle
Archdeaconry:
West cumberland
Parish:
Lamplugh with Ennerdale

Statutory Designation Information

Listed Building?
This is not a Listed Building
Scheduled Monument?
There is no Scheduled Monument within the curtilage or precinct

National Park

The church is in the following National Park: Lake District National Park, now also a World Heritage Site

Conservation Area

The church is not in a Conservation Area

Heritage At Risk Status

On Heritage At Risk Register?
This church is not on the Heritage at Risk Register
 

Approximate Date

Approximate Date:
Victorian/Pre-WWI

Exterior Image

Work in progress - can you help?

Summary Description

The church, (the southernmost of the three in the Parish), is located within the small pretty village of Ennerdale Bridge, close to a row of attractive old cottages and almost opposite the 'The Fox and Hounds' public house and within some 300 yards of 'The Gather' the community run shop and tea room. Historically the first crossing of the River Ehen is located here. The church is bounded on its north side by the River Ehen and on its west by the Rowland Beck. The village and two public houses are popular with walkers setting out on the Coast to Coast route. A late mediaeval chapel of ease was recorded on the current site in 1534 having been built by the St. Bees Abbey. The present church replaced the old chapel at the behest of the then vicar, William Dukes, in 1856, being completed and consecrated in 1858. The church, in Romanesque style, was designed by the architect, Charles Eaglesfield of Maryport , Cumberland. The old graveyard surrounding the church, has graves (including that of the Dukes family) dating from 1741 to 1900. The existing burial ground, south of the church, is situated across the narrow Church Lane. Over the Romanesque style entrance porch and chancel arch is 'dog tooth' carving: a small section in each arch is believed by Pevsner in his Guide to be Norman and probably came from the replaced chapel and originally before that from St Bees' Monastery. The nave and chancel lead into an apsidal east end. The unusual circular turret is slightly incongruous but distinctive. The three stained glass windows in the apse are Edwardian. The single pre-Reformation bell bears the inscription "Santa Bega ora pro nobis." (St. Bega, an Irish abbess, founded a nunnery at St Bees around the middle of the 7th. century which was destroyed by the Danes and re-established as a Benedictine monastery in the 12th. century to be dissolved in its turn in the late 1530's by order of Henry VIII.) It has been suggested that St. Mary's bell came from the monastery and a reported examination by a well known bell historian, Ranald Clouston, in 1994 indicated that the 14 inches diameter bell was cast about 1400 by an unknown founder, possibly based in Whicham. The pre-Reformation font has been preserved as a plant holder, by the main doorway, ( together with another of a lesser age) and replaced inside by a modern oak font carved by a local craftsman. The church plate includes several venerable items, the oldest being a chalice of 1680. In 2005 a Community Room with a small kitchen was built as a mezzanine floor at the western end of the church (with a platform lift as an alternative to the stairs). WC facilities are located on the ground floor. The large folding windows of the Community Room open out to allow the area to be part of the main body of the church when the congregation is too numerous to be accommodated wholly in the nave, or on other occasions to act as a gallery for musical or speaking performances. This clever adaptation was designed by the architects, Day Cummins of Cockermouth. An Honours Board, which commemorates all those from the Parish who served in WWI, having been researched by the Lamplugh and District Heritage Society was erected by the Society in November 2018. In 1799 William Wordsworth and Coleridge visited Ennerdale and it is reputed that after talking to the then priest about the graves in the old churchyard, Wordsworth was inspired to write his epic poem 'The Brothers' in 1800. Whilst the Parish Chapel which then stood alone in a field "Girt round with a bare ring of mossy wall", has been replaced, it is tempting to speculate that the churchyard wall so evocatively described by Wordsworth is the same as that which still surrounds the existing churchyard. However Wordsworth's description of the nearby dramatic landscape near Ennerdale Water remains timeless. Given its history, its associations and its attractiveness both as a building and for its setting, it is surprising that the church is not yet listed. It has been previously suggested that further study may well rectify this omission and this should be explored.

Visiting and Facilities

The church is open for worship.
Work in progress - can you help?
 

Church Website

Church Website:
Work in progress - can you help?

Sources and Further Information

CWGC (2016) Commonwealth War Graves Commission CWGC Unique File Reference Number: 2032 [Bibliography/Data]
Number of War Graves: 2
Church of England (2021) A Church Near You https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/12458/ [Digital Archive/Index]
View information on worship and access at this church
ICBS (1817-1989) Incorporated Church Building Society Archive https://images.lambethpalacelibrary.org.uk/luna/servlet/detail/LPLIBLPL~34~34~100095~115239 [Archive/Graphic material]

Groundplan And Elevation

ICBS File Number - 05082

Coverage - 1857

Created by ?EAGLESFIELD, Charles of Maryport

ICBS (1817-1989) Incorporated Church Building Society Archive https://images.lambethpalacelibrary.org.uk/luna/servlet/detail/LPLIBLPL~34~34~100104~115240 [Archive/Graphic material]

Groundplan

ICBS File Number - 05082

Coverage - 1856-1858

Created by ?EAGLESFIELD, Charles of Maryport

Church Buildings Council (2019) Church Bells 2 Bells [Archive/Index]
2 Bells