Lamplugh: St Michael

Name:
Lamplugh: St Michael
Record Type:
Church
Church code:
607291
Diocese:
Carlisle
Archdeaconry:
West cumberland
Parish:
Lamplugh with Ennerdale

Statutory Designation Information

Listed Building?
This is a Grade II* Listed Building
View more information about this Listed Building on the National Heritage List for England web site
Scheduled Monument?
There is no Scheduled Monument within the curtilage or precinct

National Park

The church is not in a National Park

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

Exterior image of 607291 St Michael, Lamplugh
Caption:
Exterior image of 607291 St Michael, Lamplugh
Description:
Photograph of the exterior of St Michael, Lamplugh.
Year / Date:
2009, September 12
Copyright:
John Lord
Originator:
John Lord

Summary Description

St. Michael’s and its churchyard is in a rural setting, bounded by fields. It is located on a low rise at the northern end of a long narrow Parish. To the east, on the opposite side of the road which borders the southern and eastern churchyard walls, are Lake District fells providing a dramatic setting to the church. To the north, the distant coastal mountains of Dumfries and Galloway (Scotland) are often visible. The road is part of the ‘Coast to Coast’ route (‘C2C’) much used by cyclists and tourists in general. A church (or chapel) has existed on the site since c. 1150. Of the two bells one has been dated to the third quarter of the 15th century, probably made by famous bell founders in York and is on the national list of preserved bells. The other dates from 1870 and was cast by John Taylor and Co. of Loughborough. The 1870 bell was repaired and rehung in 2018 and the mediaeval bell was repaired at the Loughborough Bell Foundry and rehung in 2020. The famous Victorian architect William Butterfield (responsible, inter alia, for chapels at Rugby School, and at Keble and Balliol Colleges, Oxford, for churches, [for example], All Saints’, London, as well as cathedrals in Perth and Melbourne) was commissioned to design the present church (the only Butterfield church in Cumberland) which was re-dedicated and opened in 1870. Some mediaeval features were retained: a doorway in the north chancel wall (now blocked, though de-lineated externally by an 18th century monument), the re-modelled chancel and vestry (the latter with an original cusped window and door) and three gargoyles relocated to the external east wall. Pevsner claims that the Perpendicular style adopted by Butterfield is unusual for the date and must have reflected the earlier building. The walls are of sandstone with ashlar details; the roof is of slate. The stained glass is particularly fine. Two of the windows are by Charles Eamer Kempe (1891 and 1901) identified by the wheatsheaf trademark and two, subsequent to the death of Kempe, are from the Kempe –Tower workshop: ‘Kempe & Co. Ltd.’ (a director being C.E.Kempe’s cousin, Walter Tower) dated to 1910 and 1911 and identified by the crenellated tower placed within a wheatsheaf. Kempe's work can be found in twenty seven British cathedrals. Of the other four stained glass windows, one, dated 1903, is by Heaton Butler and Bayne of London and the other three are attributed to the London firm of Clayton and Bell (where C.E.Kempe originally studied. 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.

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

Alexander P Kapp (2006, September 13) Interior image of 607291 St Michael, Lamplugh [Digital Archive/Graphic material]
Interior image of 607291 St Michael, Lamplugh
John Lord (2009, September 12) Exterior image of 607291 St Michael, Lamplugh [Digital Archive/Graphic material]
Exterior image of 607291 St Michael, Lamplugh
Church of England (2021) A Church Near You https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/12456/ [Digital Archive/Index]
View information on worship and access at this church
Church Buildings Council (2019) Church Bells 2 Bells [Archive/Index]
2 Bells