St Peter's Church, Finsthwaite
Encyclopedia
St Peter's Church, Finsthwaite, is in the village of Finsthwaite
, Cumbria
, England. It is an active Anglican
parish church
in the deanery of Leven Valley, the archdeaconry of Windermere, and the diocese of Carlisle
. Its benefice is united with those of St Anne, Haverthwaite, and St Mary, Staveley-in-Cartmel. The church has been designated by English Heritage
as a Grade II* listed building. St Peter's was designed by the Lancaster
partnership of Paley and Austin. They were the winners of a competition to design "mountain chapels" organised by the Carlisle Church Extension Society in 1873. The authors of the Buildings of England
series describe the church as "a brilliant essay". The church stands to the southeast of the village.
, the proprietor of the Stott Park Bobbin Mill
.
stone rubble
with sandstone
dressings. It has a slate
roof and tiles on the ridges. Its architectural style is Norman
. The plan consists of a four-bay
nave
, a north porch and a chancel
. Between the nave and chancel is a tower. To the north of the tower is an organ chamber and a vestry
. Along the side of the nave are round-headed lancet window
s. At the west end are two windows, with a lancet window above them. The porch is timber framed
on stone walls and has a gable
. It leads to the round-headed entrance to the church. On the north and south sides of the tower are buttress
es, and between them are projections. In the south projection is a lancet window, with a small window above it. There are two windows in the vestry. At the east end of the chancel are three windows, the central one being wider than the others, and a lancet window above them. On the gable of the east end is a cross finial
. There are two windows on the south side of the chancel. On the upper part of the tower is a diamond-shaped clock face. The tower has a high pyramidal roof. On the north and south sides of the roof are louvred
dormer windows, and on the east and west sides are stone dormers containing round-headed louvred bell openings.
, and with angels carrying copies of the Beatitudes
. Around the nave and window arches are a stencil
led frieze
, part of which has been covered with whitewash
. The reredos
is made from alabaster
and mosaic
, it dates from 1883, and was made by Salviati
. The rest of the furnishings were designed by the architects. These include the altar rails, the chancel floor, the pulpit
, the lectern
, and the font
, which is made from fossil
iferous marble
. There is stained glass in the east and west windows by Shrigley and Hunt
, that in the west windows containing musical quotations from Handel
's Messiah
. The two-manual
organ was made by Jardine and company of Manchester
in 1875.
Finsthwaite
Finsthwaite is a small village in the South Lakeland District, in the county of Cumbria. It is located near the Furness Fells and Windermere. Finsthwaite has a place of worship, St Peter's Church, and a Bobbin Mill called Stott Park Bobbin Mill.-References:...
, Cumbria
Cumbria
Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...
, England. It is an active Anglican
Anglicanism
Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...
parish church
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
in the deanery of Leven Valley, the archdeaconry of Windermere, and the diocese of Carlisle
Diocese of Carlisle
The Diocese of Carlisle was created in 1133 by Henry I out of part of the Diocese of Durham, although many people of Celtic descent in the area looked to Glasgow for spiritual leadership. The first bishop was Æthelwold, formerly the king's confessor and now prior of the Augustinian priory at...
. Its benefice is united with those of St Anne, Haverthwaite, and St Mary, Staveley-in-Cartmel. The church has been designated by English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
as a Grade II* listed building. St Peter's was designed by the Lancaster
Lancaster, Lancashire
Lancaster is the county town of Lancashire, England. It is situated on the River Lune and has a population of 45,952. Lancaster is a constituent settlement of the wider City of Lancaster, local government district which has a population of 133,914 and encompasses several outlying towns, including...
partnership of Paley and Austin. They were the winners of a competition to design "mountain chapels" organised by the Carlisle Church Extension Society in 1873. The authors of the Buildings of England
Pevsner Architectural Guides
The Pevsner Architectural Guides are a series of guide books to the architecture of the British Isles. Begun in the 1940s by art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, the 46 volumes of the Buildings of England series were published between 1951 and 1975. The series was then extended to Scotland and...
series describe the church as "a brilliant essay". The church stands to the southeast of the village.
History
The church was built in 1873–74 to replace a chapel dating from 1724–25. It was paid for by Thomas Newby Wilson of Newby BridgeNewby Bridge
Newby Bridge is a small hamlet in the Lake District, Cumbria, although historically it was in Lancashire.Newby Bridge is located several miles west of Grange-over-Sands and is on the River Leven, close to the southern end of Windermere...
, the proprietor of the Stott Park Bobbin Mill
Stott Park Bobbin Mill
Stott Park Bobbin Mill was built in 1835 by John Harrison. Located near Newby Bridge, Cumbria, England, it provided the wooden bobbins to the Lancashire weaving and spinning industry, up to a quarter of a million bobbins per week. The mill was originally powered by a water wheel drawing the water...
.
Exterior
The church is constructed in coursedCourse (architecture)
A course is a continuous horizontal layer of similarly-sized building material one unit high, usually in a wall. The term is almost always used in conjunction with unit masonry such as brick, cut stone, or concrete masonry units .-Styles:...
stone rubble
Rubble
Rubble is broken stone, of irregular size, shape and texture. This word is closely connected in derivation with "rubbish", which was formerly also applied to what we now call "rubble". Rubble naturally found in the soil is known also as brash...
with sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
dressings. It has a slate
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...
roof and tiles on the ridges. Its architectural style is Norman
Norman architecture
About|Romanesque architecture, primarily English|other buildings in Normandy|Architecture of Normandy.File:Durham Cathedral. Nave by James Valentine c.1890.jpg|thumb|200px|The nave of Durham Cathedral demonstrates the characteristic round arched style, though use of shallow pointed arches above the...
. The plan consists of a four-bay
Bay (architecture)
A bay is a unit of form in architecture. This unit is defined as the zone between the outer edges of an engaged column, pilaster, or post; or within a window frame, doorframe, or vertical 'bas relief' wall form.-Defining elements:...
nave
Nave
In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...
, a north porch and a chancel
Chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building...
. Between the nave and chancel is a tower. To the north of the tower is an organ chamber and a vestry
Vestry
A vestry is a room in or attached to a church or synagogue in which the vestments, vessels, records, etc., are kept , and in which the clergy and choir robe or don their vestments for divine service....
. Along the side of the nave are round-headed lancet window
Lancet window
A lancet window is a tall narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural motif are most often found in Gothic and ecclesiastical structures, where they are often placed singly or in pairs.The motif first...
s. At the west end are two windows, with a lancet window above them. The porch is timber framed
Timber framing
Timber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...
on stone walls and has a gable
Gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...
. It leads to the round-headed entrance to the church. On the north and south sides of the tower are buttress
Buttress
A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall...
es, and between them are projections. In the south projection is a lancet window, with a small window above it. There are two windows in the vestry. At the east end of the chancel are three windows, the central one being wider than the others, and a lancet window above them. On the gable of the east end is a cross finial
Finial
The finial is an architectural device, typically carved in stone and employed decoratively to emphasize the apex of a gable or any of various distinctive ornaments at the top, end, or corner of a building or structure. Smaller finials can be used as a decorative ornament on the ends of curtain rods...
. There are two windows on the south side of the chancel. On the upper part of the tower is a diamond-shaped clock face. The tower has a high pyramidal roof. On the north and south sides of the roof are louvred
Louver
A louver or louvre , from the French l'ouvert; "the open one") is a window, blind or shutter with horizontal slats that are angled to admit light and air, but to keep out rain, direct sunshine, and noise...
dormer windows, and on the east and west sides are stone dormers containing round-headed louvred bell openings.
Interior
The ceiling is painted with scrollworkScrollwork
Scrollwork is an element of ornamentation and graphic design using a spiral. The name comes from by the supposed resemblance to the edge-on view of a rolled parchment scroll. "Scrollwork" is today mostly used in popular language for two-dimensional decorative flourishes and arabesques of all...
, and with angels carrying copies of the Beatitudes
Beatitudes
In Christianity, the Beatitudes are a set of teachings by Jesus that appear in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. The term Beatitude comes from the Latin adjective beatus which means happy, fortunate, or blissful....
. Around the nave and window arches are a stencil
Stencil
A stencil is a thin sheet of material, such as paper, plastic, or metal, with letters or a design cut from it, used to produce the letters or design on an underlying surface by applying pigment through the cut-out holes in the material. The key advantage of a stencil is that it can be reused to...
led frieze
Frieze
thumb|267px|Frieze of the [[Tower of the Winds]], AthensIn architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon...
, part of which has been covered with whitewash
Whitewash
Whitewash, or calcimine, kalsomine, calsomine, or lime paint is a very low-cost type of paint made from slaked lime and chalk . Various other additives are also used...
. The reredos
Reredos
thumb|300px|right|An altar and reredos from [[St. Josaphat's Roman Catholic Church|St. Josaphat Catholic Church]] in [[Detroit]], [[Michigan]]. This would be called a [[retable]] in many other languages and countries....
is made from alabaster
Alabaster
Alabaster is a name applied to varieties of two distinct minerals, when used as a material: gypsum and calcite . The former is the alabaster of the present day; generally, the latter is the alabaster of the ancients...
and mosaic
Mosaic
Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral...
, it dates from 1883, and was made by Salviati
Salviati (glassmakers)
A family called Salviati were glass makers and mosaicists in Murano, Venice and also in London, working as the firm Salviati, Jesurum & Co. of 213 Regent Street, London; also as Salviati and Co. and later as the Venice and Murano Glass and Mosaic Company...
. The rest of the furnishings were designed by the architects. These include the altar rails, the chancel floor, the pulpit
Pulpit
Pulpit is a speakers' stand in a church. In many Christian churches, there are two speakers' stands at the front of the church. Typically, the one on the left is called the pulpit...
, the lectern
Lectern
A lectern is a reading desk with a slanted top, usually placed on a stand or affixed to some other form of support, on which documents or books are placed as support for reading aloud, as in a scripture reading, lecture, or sermon...
, and the font
Baptismal font
A baptismal font is an article of church furniture or a fixture used for the baptism of children and adults.-Aspersion and affusion fonts:...
, which is made from fossil
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
iferous marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
. There is stained glass in the east and west windows by Shrigley and Hunt
Shrigley and Hunt
Shrigley and Hunt was the name of an English firm which produced stained glass windows and art tiles.The business began in the 1750s when Shrigley's was a painting, carving and gilding firm in Lancaster, Lancashire....
, that in the west windows containing musical quotations from Handel
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
's Messiah
Messiah (Handel)
Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742, and received its London premiere nearly a year later...
. The two-manual
Manual (music)
A manual is a keyboard designed to be played with the hands on a pipe organ, harpsichord, clavichord, electronic organ, or synthesizer. The term "manual" is used with regard to any hand keyboard on these instruments to distinguish it from the pedalboard, which is a keyboard that the organist plays...
organ was made by Jardine and company of Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
in 1875.