St John the Baptist's Church, Blawith

St John the Baptist's Church, Blawith

A small stone church seen from the southeast with a short chancel, a porch at the southeast, a buttressed nave, and a west bellcote

St John the Baptist's Church, Blawith
St John the Baptist's Church, Blawith

Location in Cumbria

Coordinates: 54°17′09″N 3°05′38″W / 54.2857°N 3.0940°W
OS grid reference SD 288,883
Location Blawith, Cumbria
Country England
Denomination Anglican
Website Churches Conservation Trust
History
Dedication Saint John the Baptist
Architecture
Functional status Redundant
Architect(s) E. G. Paley
Austin, Paley and Austin
Architectural type Church
Style Gothic Revival
Groundbreaking 1862
Completed 1863
Construction cost £1,600 (£130,000 in 2015)
Closed 1998
Specifications
Capacity 171
Materials Whinstone, slate roof

St John the Baptist's Church is a redundant Anglican church in the settlement of Blawith, Cumbria, England. It is located to the east of the A5084 road, south of Coniston Water in the Lake District. The church is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.[1]

New church

St John's was designed by the Lancaster architect E. G. Paley and built in 1862–63. It is constructed in whinstone with a slate roof, and was built to replace an older church, also dedicated to Saint John the Baptist.[1] Its plan consists of a nave, with a short chancel and a bellcote. The windows are lancets containing plate tracery.[2] The church cost £1,600 (equivalent to £130,000 in 2015),[3] and had seating for a congregation of 169 or 171.[4] Its architectural style is Gothic Revival, and it contains stained glass windows in the chancel depicting the Ascension, the Presentation in the Temple, and the Adoration of the Magi.[5] In 1914, Paley's successors Austin, Paley and Austin rebuilt the chancel arch and the top part of the east wall at a cost of £196,[6] and in 1926 the same practice carried out repairs to the north and west walls, and added buttresses to the south wall of the nave.[7] The church was declared redundant on 1 March 1988, and was vested in the Trust on 23 June 1993.[8]

Old church

The ruins of the older church remain nearby, on the other side of the road (54°17′05″N 3°05′42″W / 54.2847°N 3.0949°W). This church was built in the 16th century and it was rebuilt in 1749.[9] It was "little better than a barn, of small dimensions, without a tower or steeple" and by 1861 was in "so ruinous a condition" that it had to be replaced.[10] The remains consist of stone walls rising to a height of between 3 metres (10 ft) and 6 metres (20 ft), with a taller structure at the west end. The ruins are recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building.[9]

See also

References

Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Church of St John the Baptist, Blawith, Cumbria, Churches Conservation Trust, retrieved 28 March 2011
  2. ↑ Hyde & Pevsner (2010), p. 156
  3. ↑ UK CPI inflation numbers based on data available from Gregory Clark (2014), "What Were the British Earnings and Prices Then? (New Series)" MeasuringWorth.
  4. ↑ Brandwood et al. 2012, p. 220.
  5. ↑ St John the Baptist, Blawith, GENUKI, retrieved 21 September 2010
  6. ↑ Brandwood et al. (2012), p. 249
  7. ↑ Brandwood et al. (2012), p. 251
  8. ↑ Diocese of Carlisle: All Schemes (PDF), Church Commissioners/Statistics, Church of England, 2010, p. 1, retrieved 3 April 2011
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Historic England, "Ruins of former Church of St John, Blawith and Subberthwaite (1326663)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 6 June 2012
  10. ↑ Pastscape: St John's Church, English Heritage, retrieved 21 September 2010

Sources

  • Brandwood, Geoff; Austin, Tim; Hughes, John; Price, James (2012), The Architecture of Sharpe, Paley and Austin, Swindon: English Heritage, ISBN 978-1-84802-049-8
  • Hyde, Matthew; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2010) [1967], Cumbria, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0-300-12663-1

External links