button to main menu  Old Cumbria Gazetteer
St Mary, Wreay
St Mary's Church
Wreay Church
locality:-   Wreay
civil parish:-   St Cuthbert Without (formerly Cumberland)
county:-   Cumbria
locality type:-   church
coordinates:-   NY43524892
1Km square:-   NY4348
10Km square:-   NY44
references:-   : 2005: Diocese of Carlisle, Directory 2004/5


photograph
BND68.jpg (taken 3.2.2007)  
photograph
BND72.jpg (taken 3.2.2007)  

evidence:-   old map:- OS County Series (Cmd 31 5) 
source data:-   Maps, County Series maps of Great Britain, scales 6 and 25 inches to 1 mile, published by the Ordnance Survey, Southampton, Hampshire, from about 1863 to 1948.
"Church (Per Curacy) / Grave Yard"

evidence:-   old map:- Nurse 1918
source data:-   Map, The Diocese of Carlisle, Cumberland, Westmorland, and Lancashire North of the Sands, scale about 4 miles to 1 inch, by Rev Euston J Nurse, published by Charles Thurnam and Sons, 11 English Street, Carlisle, Cumberland, 2nd edn 1939.
image
NUR1NY44.jpg
"WREAY"
item:-  JandMN : 27
Image © see bottom of page

 notes about bells

 stained glass

evidence:-   database:- Listed Buildings 2010
placename:-  Church of St Mary
source data:-  
courtesy of English Heritage
"CHURCH OF ST MARY / / / ST CUTHBERT WITHOUT / CARLISLE / CUMBRIA / II[star] / 77610 / NY4352548921"
source data:-  
courtesy of English Heritage
"Church. 184O-42 by Sarah Losh, with sculptural stonework by William Hindson, erected by estate workers at her own expense. Dressed sandstone walls, stone- slate roof. 4 bay nave with semicircular apse. Romanesque style showing both French and Italian influence. Nave has 4 round-headed windows to each side, with triple clerestory windows above. 2 gargoyles to each side representing reptiles. Apse has recessed and round-headed niches with clerestory arcading above. West gable entrance has round-headed arch decorated with roll-moulding of formalised water-lilies and pine-cone motifs. 3 round-headed windows over entrance with rising arcade of small windows above, surmounted by stone bellcote with carved stone eagle. Down steps to right of entrance, is a small stone-enclosed well. Interior on 3 levels, sunken body, steps up to apse. Apse is surrounded by arcade of 14 columns with carved capitals. Ceiling of pine panels and trusses of oak, floor of sandstone slabs. Seating of oak and Spanish chestnut, other chairs and pulpit of carved local bog oak and ebony: lecturns of carved chestnut representing eagle and pelican on bog oak stands: pulpit of carved bog oak. Font of varved alabaster by Sarah Losh and W.S. Losh: altar of green Italian marble on brass eagles. Non-figurative stained glass partly of re-used glass from Archbishop's Palace, Paris. Carved wooden archangles on either side of chancel arch. Carved wood and other details by local craftsmen. Built close, or on site of, medieval church which was totally demolished on rebiJilding, except for font (now in churchyard, listed separately), re-used corbel stone above entrance to boiler house, and some re-used timber. See, Pevsner, Buildings of England, Cumberland &Westmorland, p. 212; Country Life, 4 November, 1971 p. 123O-31."

evidence:-   database:- Listed Buildings 2010
placename:-  Losh Mausoleum
source data:-  
courtesy of English Heritage
"WREAY CHURCHYARD, LOSH MAUSOLEUM / / / ST CUTHBERT WITHOUT / CARLISLE / CUMBRIA / II / 77611 / NY4348648973"
source data:-  
courtesy of English Heritage
"Mausoleum, 1850 by Sarah Losh for her sister Katherine Losh (died 1835). Quarry-cut Cyclopean blocks of calciferous sandstone to walls. Single-storey, 7 one bay. Entrance has vertical plank door flanked by lancets with vertical iron bars. Projected cornice, blocking course and flat roof. Single chamber has white marble statue of. Katherine Losh by David Dunbar, dated 185O, based on a sketch by Sarah near Naples in 1817. On walls are medallions in marble to John and Isabella Losh, also by Dunbar. Statue illustrated, Country Life, 4 November. 971. p.1231."

evidence:-   database:- Listed Buildings 2010
source data:-  
courtesy of English Heritage
"RE-ERECTED FONT IN WREAY CHURCHYARD / / / ST CUTHBERT WITHOUT / CARLISLE / CUMBRIA / II / 77613 / NY4351048923"
source data:-  
courtesy of English Heritage
"Font dated 1733 (church guide says 1738) from earlier church. Red sandstone. Squared base, chamfered-edged column, surmounted by square shallow bowl, with moulded panels to each face, one dated. removed from church on rebuilding in 1842 and now forms churchyard ornament to left of west entrance."

evidence:-   database:- Listed Buildings 2010
source data:-  
courtesy of English Heritage
"CROSS IN WREAY CHURCHYARD / / / ST CUTHBERT WITHOUT / CARLISLE / CUMBRIA / II / 77612 / NY4350748969"
source data:-  
courtesy of English Heritage
"Cross. 1835 by Sarah Losh. Carved calciferous sandstone. Tape red column with carved figures and Celtic designs in alternating panels, surmounted by triform cross. Erected as memorial, with latin inscription to John &Isabella Losh (parents of Sarah Losh) and based on the Bewcastle Cross."


photograph
CBE49.jpg (taken 21.7.2014)  

 sundial


photograph
BSF37.jpg  Organ, by Wilkinson and Sons, Kendal.
(taken 2.3.2010)  
photograph
BSF39.jpg  Organ, makers label:-
"WILKINSON &SONS / KENDAL" (taken 2.3.2010)  
photograph
BSF38.jpg  Organ, painted pipes.
(taken 2.3.2010)  
photograph
BND73.jpg  Alabaster font, and glass lid decorated with lotus flowers.
(taken 3.2.2007)  
photograph
BTS18.jpg  Pulpit of bog oak, with a palm tree for a candle; and lectern, a pelican in chestnut on a pillar of bog oak.
(taken 22.10.2010)  
photograph
BND75.jpg  Pulpit of bog oak, with a palm tree for a candle; and lectern, a pelican in chestnut on a pillar of bog oak.
(taken 3.2.2007)  
photograph
BSF40.jpg  Lectern.
(taken 2.3.2010)  
photograph
BND76.jpg  The altar and sanctuary.
(taken 3.2.2007)  
photograph
CAF29.jpg  Basilica.
(taken 3.2.2007)  
photograph
CAF30.jpg  Basilica.
(taken 3.2.2007)  
photograph
CAF31.jpg  Basilica.
(taken 3.2.2007)  
photograph
CAF32.jpg  Basilica.
(taken 3.2.2007)  
photograph
CAF28.jpg  Candlestick, on altar.
(taken 30.3.2014)  
photograph
BND74.jpg  Sarah Losh, who was rebuilt the church, 1840-42, acting as her own architect.
(taken 3.2.2007)  


photograph
BSF36.jpg  Door arch.
(taken 2.3.2010)  
photograph
BND69.jpg  Window on west front.
(taken 3.2.2007)  
photograph
BND69.jpg  Window on west front.
(taken 3.2.2007)  
photograph
BTS16.jpg  Window on west front, detail.
(taken 22.10.2010)  
photograph
BND71.jpg  Window on west front.
(taken 3.2.2007)  

notes:-  
There was a church recorded here in 1319. Later there was a chapel and schoolroom, consecrated in 1739, which became delapidated. The church was rebuilt in the shape of a roman basilica in 1840-42, by Sarah Losh who was her own architect.

: : church leaflet

:-  
Inside, there is war memorial plaque to those who fell in World War I.

dedication
person:-    : St Mary
place:-   Wreay / Carlisle Diocese

button to lakes menu  Lakes Guides menu.