Church of St Patrick

Summary

Church, 1853 to the designs of Anthony Salvin, built by Levi Hodgson and Robert McAdam of Patterdale; parish hall extension, 1995 by BDP Preston.

Reasons for Designation

The Church of St Patrick, Pattedale is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Historic Interest: it was designed by the nationally important architect Anthony Salvin, a recognised revival church expert;
* Architectural interest: as a complete and well executed example of gothic revival architecture in Decorated style with good detailing and use of materials;
* Intactness: it is a largely intact building; the only alteration, a late C20 extension to the rear, is well designed and executed and considered a building of high quality in its own right;
* Fixtures and fittings: it retains a complete set of internal fittings including carved oak, an original embroidery by local resident and pioneer of craft education, Ann Macbeth, and stained glass by mid and later C19 firms of note.

History

The Church of St Patrick, Patterdale was built in 1853, and consecrated by the Bishop of Carlisle in November of the same year. Built to replace an earlier church of c. 1600, it was constructed to the designs of Anthony Salvin (1799-1881) by Levi Hodgson and Robert McAdam of Patterdale. Stained glass by Henry Hughes was inserted in some of the windows in 1876 and during the 1890s by Ward & Hughes and Curtis, Ward & Hughes. The organ dates to 1905 by Wilkinson’s of Kendal, and an ensign said to be from a dispatch boat of HMS Lion at the Battle of Jutland in 1916, was given to the church by Commander A. J. Berry who was present at the action. Attached to the nave walls are embroideries by Anne Macbeth (1875-1948) who retired to Patterdale in 1928. The church was extended in 1995 by the addition of an entrance foyer and parish room by BDP Preston. In 2000, the west altar was added; originally from the Church of St. Martin in the Fields and dedicated by the Bishop of Carlisle in memory of those who lost their lives in air crashes on the Lakeland fells in 1970, it was given to the Church of St Patrick by the sculptor Josefina de Vasconcellos to be a place of pilgrimage for relatives and friends. Over 500 people lost their lives in air crashes on the Lakeland Fells during the Second World War.

As his entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB) suggests, Anthony Salvin was a much respected architect and seen as an expert on medieval buildings. His commissions were many and varied including Harlaxton Manor, Lincolnshire, and in all he designed thirty-four new churches, the latter drawing on his medieval expertise. Many commissions related to the restoration of castles and churches including Windsor and Alnwick Castles and Norwich Cathedral. By the end of his career, he was held in high regard, although his approach of removing earlier work rather than retaining it has been questioned subsequently. He has dozens of listed buildings to his name, many in the higher grades.

Ann Macbeth’s entry in the ODNB illustrates that she was a distinguished member of a
group of later C19/early C20 influential women artists at the Glasgow School of Art (retrospectively known as the Glasgow Girls). Initially a student, she became a teacher of needlework, embroidery and appliqué and in 1911 she became head of the Embroidery Department. She executed fine works of embroidery including The Sleeping Beauty (1902; Glasgow Museums and Art Galleries) and a pictorial work of Elspeth (1902; priv. coll.). She lectured across Britain and published widely. Her work was on exhibition in Glasgow and she designed for Liberty’s & Knox’s Linen thread Company.

Details

Church, 1853 to the designs of Anthony Salvin, built by Levi Hodgson and Robert McAdam of Patterdale; parish hall extension, 1995 by BDP Preston.

Materials: random coursed Lakeland slate with squared slate quoins; red sandstone dressings and diminishing Westmorland slate roof coverings; windows have stained or leaded glass.

Plan: Set within a stone-walled graveyard, it has a rectangular nave with a south porch, and a chancel with an attached north east tower and vestry.

Exterior: Gothic revival church with prominent quoins, pitched roofs and a saddleback roof to the tower. The east window has geometrical tracery, and neatly laid slate relieving arches over sandstone hood moulding. Similar windows pierce the south chancel wall and all have similar detailing to that of the east window. The narrow tower is attached to the north side of the chancel; this has three stages, the upper inset, with a single cusped window to the ground floor and similar paired windows to the upper levels on the north elevation. The west elevation has a geometrical window to the upper level and east face has a similar window with a short stair tower and narrow lean-to porch with a shoulder-arched entrance. The single storey vestry is attached to the west side of the tower with paired cusped windows. The south side of the nave has a buttress to the right and two decorated windows; the gabled south porch has a pointed arch entrance and double wooden doors with a cusped window to the left. The west end has a narrow geometric window. The north side of the nave has been extended by the addition of a range in similar materials to the original building, with stone mullioned windows.

Interior: the chancel walls are painted plaster with exposed red sandstone dressings; there is an oak panelled reredos with carved cornice and the original oak altar table is reached by a single stone step. The stained glass of the east window depicting the Crucifixion is by Henry Hughes. A door to the left leads into the tower, and to its left is a large pipe organ set within a pointed arched organ loft; there are choir stalls to the front and opposite with carved detail. The pointed chancel has tooled stonework, and an inner arch springing from moulded corbels at impost height., and to its left is the carved oak pulpit. The nave has painted plaster walls with a pitch pine scissor-braced roof supported on carved stone corbels; it contains a full compliment of wooden benches. The north wall has ‘the Good Shepherd’ embroidery (1935-6) by Ann Macbeth, which has as background the view towards Kirkstone from Wordsworth cottage, the artist’s house; the small panel beneath this has the score of Parry’s music for William Blake’s Jerusalem. Beneath this embroidery is a brass memorial to local schoolmaster Aaron Nelson and on the south wall there is a reproduction of Ann Macbeth’s ‘Patterdale Nativity’. At the west end of the nave, the main entrance to the left is mirrored by a C20 opening to the right into the parish hall. The font stands to the front of the west altar, and its pedestal may be part of a medieval cross. The last stone corbel on the north side of the nave bears a flagpole with an ensign from HMS Lion. The entrance porch has plain walls with benches and the main entrance is a pointed arch with moulded surround and a wooden door.

Subsidiary Items
The church is situated within a small churchyard surrounded by a drystone wall with boulder, flat and triangular copings.

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Hyde, M, The Buildings of England: Cumbria, (2010), 563

Websites
Glasgow Girls (act. 1880-1920), accessed from http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/73660/45804
Salvin, Anthony (1799–1881), accessed from http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/24585?docPos=1
St Patrick's Church, Patterdale, accessed from http://www.patterdaletoday.co.uk/church/church-history

End of official list entry

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