St Mary's Church, Walton
History
The present church was built in 1869–70 on the site of a previous medieval church, which had itself been rebuilt in 1811 and extended in 1843. The architects were the Lancaster partnership of Paley and Austin. The church cost about £2,000 (equivalent to £230,000 as of 2023).
Architecture
Exterior
St Mary's is constructed in red sandstone on an ashlar chamfered plinth. It has quoins, a string course, and slate roofs with coped gables, a cross finial, and decorative ridge tiles. The plan consists of a four-bay nave, a north aisle, a three-bay chancel, and a tower incorporating a porch at the northwest. On the west wall of the tower is a stair turret. The entrance to the porch is through a pointed doorway on the north side. The bell openings are also pointed, they contain louvres, and are Early English in style. On top of the tower is a pyramidal roof with small louvres. The sides of the church differ. The south side contains tall lancet windows and one quatrefoil. The north side has a catslide roof extending from the ridge to the edge of the aisle. It contains smaller lancet windows. At the west end are a pair of lancet windows and a rose window. At the east end are three equal-sized lancet windows with a quatrefoil above.
Interior
The pews and all the furnishings date from the 19th or early 20th century. At the base of the font is a fragment of a cross from the 10th or 11th century. On the walls are marble memorial plaques moved from the earlier church. The reredos dates from 1899 and consists of a mosaic framed in alabaster. The stained glass in the east window is by William Wailes and is dated 1869. In the north aisle is a window by Heaton, Butler and Bayne from about 1912. The age of the single-manual organ is not known, but it thought to have been built by Samuel Renn of Manchester.
External features
In the churchyard is a hearse house dating from the early 19th century. It is constructed in calciferous sandstone and has a slate roof. It has been listed at Grade II. It is probable that its round-arched window comes from the 1813 church.
See also
- Grade II* listed buildings in the City of Carlisle
- Listed buildings in Walton, Cumbria
- List of ecclesiastical works by Paley and Austin
References
- ^ St Mary, Walton, Church of England, retrieved 9 June 2011
- ^ Historic England, "Church of St Mary, Walton (1157868)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 19 May 2014
- ^ Price, James (1998), Sharpe, Paley and Austin: A Lancaster Architectural Practice 1836–1942, Lancaster: Centre for North-West Regional Studies, p. 88, ISBN 1-86220-054-8
- ^ 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, pp. 223–224, ISBN 978-1-84802-049-8
- ^ Hyde, Matthew; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2010) [1967], Cumbria, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, p. 656, ISBN 978-0-300-12663-1
- ^ "NPOR [D00949]", National Pipe Organ Register, British Institute of Organ Studies, retrieved 1 July 2020
- ^ Historic England, "Hearse House northeast of Church of St Mary, Walton (1087605)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 19 May 2014