St Bridget's Church, Calder Bridge
History
William Sowerby was ordained in 1826 becoming curate to St. Bridgets until about 1837, when he responded to an appeal by Bishop Broughton and travelled to Australia becoming the first Anglican clergyman at Goulburn. The current St Bridget's church was built between 1840 and 1842 to a design by the Lancaster architect Edmund Sharpe. It was paid for by Thomas Irwin of Calder Abbey. The church was opened for worship in May 1842, and consecrated on 24 June 1844 by Rt Revd John Bird Sumner, Bishop of Chester. Its cost was under £1,900 (equivalent to £230,000 in 2023).
Architecture
The church is constructed in local red sandstone ashlar with a slate roof. Its plan is cruciform, with a west tower, a three-bay nave, long transepts, and a short chancel, with a north vestry, and a south organ loft. The windows are lancets and around the church are buttresses. In the tower are louvred bell-openings, a corbelled parapet and pinnacles. There are clock faces on three sides of the top stage of the tower. The Pre-Raphaelite stained glass, made by Powell's and dated 1879, was designed by H. E. Wooldridge and H. J. Burrow. The memorials in the north transept include one to Thomas Irwin and his wife.
See also
References
- ^ Beckermet, St Bridget, Church of England, retrieved 20 April 2010
- ^ Historic England, "Church of St Bridget, Calder Bridge, Beckermet (1086589)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 28 May 2012
- ^ Matheson,I.1976,'Sowerby, William (1799–1875)',Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 6, (MUP), 1976, available http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/sowerby-william-4625
- ^ Hyde, Matthew; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2010) [1967], Cumbria, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, p. 217, ISBN 978-0-300-12663-1
- ^ Hughes, John M. (2010), Edmund Sharpe: Man of Lancaster, John M. Hughes, p. 178
- ^ UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017), "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)", MeasuringWorth, retrieved 7 May 2024
- ^ Brandwood, Geoff; Austin, Tim; Hughes, John; Price, James (2012), The Architecture of Sharpe, Paley and Austin, Swindon: English Heritage, p. 212, ISBN 978-1-84802-049-8