St Mary, Crosthwaite
St Mary, Crosthwaite
St Mary’s is a Grade II parish church at Church Town, Crosthwaite, in the civil parish of Crosthwaite and Lyth, Cumbria. It belongs to the Diocese of Carlisle and stands in the Lake District National Park.
- Location
- Crosthwaite, Cumbria
- Country
- England
- County
- Cumbria
- City / town
- Crosthwaite
- Address
- Totter Bank, Crosthwaite, Cumbria, LA8 8HR
- Postcode
- LA8 8HR
- Built
- 1878
- Denomination
- Church of England
- Dedication
- Mary
- Diocese
- Carlisle
- Parish
- Crosthwaite St Mary
- Grade
- II
- Style
- Perpendicular Gothic Revival
- Materials
- Rock-faced limestone with sandstone ashlar dressings and slate roof
- Grid reference
- SD 446 911
- Opening hours
- The church is open every day as quiet spaces to pause, reflect and pray.
- Access
- Accessible toilets in church. Level access to the main areas
Overview
Historic England records a church of 1878 in rock-faced limestone with sandstone ashlar dressings and a slate roof. The plan is a single-vessel nave and chancel, canted apse, south transept and west tower. Four-bay nave and chancel have gabled buttresses, a cornice and a plain coped parapet; three-light pointed windows have double-cusped lights. The south-east transept has Perpendicular tracery. The apse has a coved cornice with Tudor-flower ornament and Perpendicular windows. The three-stage tower has weathered set-back buttresses, traceried west window and bell openings, a cornice with gargoyles, a coped parapet with blind quatrefoils, and a lead-clad pyramidal roof with a vane.
The interior has deep arch-braced roof trusses with king pendants. Chancel trusses include hammerbeams carved as angels. A two-order tower arch has a timber screen with stained glass. Fixtures include an octagonal font, an octagonal timber pulpit on a stone base, and a west-wall bust of W. Pearson (d. 1856), a friend of Wordsworth. The apse east wall is painted with Passion symbols, angels, the Virgin and St Peter. Wikipedia notes that the tower was replaced in 1885; the list description dates the church as a whole to 1878.