Chapel Stile Church

Great Langdale, Little Langdale and part of Loughrigg were formerly included in the parish of Grasmere as a chapelry in charge of a lay reader or, later, an ordained curate. Devine services were held but baptisms, marriages and burials took place in Grasmere church where, today, the north aisle is still known as the Langdale aisle. The curate did not always live locally; at one time he had quarters in what became the White Lion Inn but it was not until 1849 that he was provided with his own parsonage, later the vicarage. This building still stands, adjacent to the church, but it has been replaced by a modern house in 1993.

Map and Gallery:

 Location Map

 In 1751 a chapel was built to replace an earlier one on the present site which had fallen into disrepair. A writer in 1819 remarked of the new building that "the interior of the Chapel is neat and it is numerously attended by a respectable congregation". But with the growing population, serving the new industries of gunpowder manufacturing and quarrying, this second chapel also "became too small and insufficient for the decent and comfortable accommodation of the inhabitants of the said Chapelry at Divine service". It was therefore decided to build yet again and for this purpose a Faculty (ie. the permission of the Diocese) was issued in February 1857 to the Reverend Stephen Birkett, perpetual curate, John Robinson and E B Wheatley "to take down the ancient chapel of Langdale and rebuild the same".

 The cost was to be met by the local landowners mentioned in the Faculty, namely Mr John Robinson (1802-1866) of Elterwater Hall (now Eltermere), chairman of the Elterwater Gunpowder Company and Mr Edward Balme Wheatley (1819-1896), soon to become E B Wheatley-Balme, the owner of the High Close estate at Loughrigg, now owned by the National Trust. He was a considerable benefactor to the church in Langdale and also his native West Ridingof Yorkshire. The building work proceeded at a great pace and the new chapel was consecrated by Henry Montagu Villiers, Bishop of Carlisle, on the 2nd July 1858 the parishes of Westmorland were included in the Diocese of Chester.

 With a splendid and comfortable new chapel and a vigorous local community the time had come to petition for the right to conduct all the services of the church, including baptisms, marriages and burials, within the valley. Previous applications to be recognised as a parish separate from Grasmere were turned down but in 1863 the Ecclesiastical Commissioners advised the Queen to create the Parish of Langdale. The curate, The Reverend James Coward, became the first vicar and the chapel became the parish church.

 THE CHURCH:
The design for Holy Trinity was by John Cory of Cory Fergusson, architects of Carlisle who were responsible for several churches in Cumbria. The style chosen is Decorated Gothic, prominent in Britain throughout the first half of the 14th century and a favourite style with Victorian neo-gothic revivalists.

 The church is built of local sandstone, a metamorphic grey-green rock of hard, enduring quality. The exterior walls are constructed in the traditional way known locally as 'watershot', each stone laid at a slight angle so that its exposed upper edge slopes outwards and thus sheds rain water towards the outside. It will be noticed that the motar is not flush with the outer surface but is set back giving the appearance of dry walling, a style favoured by the Victorians. Contrasting sandstone has been chosen for the window surrounds and architraves. This is more easily worked than sandstone and creates a pleasing contrast to it. The sandstoen pointed arch above the porch is surmounted by an attractive complimentary arch of slatestone voussoirs or border, a feature which is repeated in the east window. The slate roof is laid in diminishing courses, the traditional method with this material.

 The embattled tower originally stood at the south west corner but in 1878-1879 the west wall was extended by about 12 feet to provide more seating and the tower thus came to occupy its unusual position on the south wall. The vestry was extended in 191-1902 as a gift of Mr F M T Jones-Balme who succeeded Mr Wheatley-Balme at High Close.

 The medieval churches of the Decorated gothic Style had a grand sense of proportion and gracefulness. This character is similarly produced in Holy Trinity where the north aisle is separated form the nave by a pleasing arcade of three sturdy octagonal piers. The sense of space is accentuated by one of the glories of our parish churches - the timber trussed roof. Here we can see a Victorian reproduction of a later development of timber roof construction, popular in the decorated period, the arch-braced roof. In this tie-beams have been dispensed with and instead the principle rafters are supported by gently curving stained pine braces which meet close to the apex of the roof, supporting horizontal collar beams. This creates a much lighter, more graceful and spacious appearance then can be achieved with the tie-beam roof.

 During the medieval decorated period window tracery was at its most creative. The simpler geometric patterns of the early gothic gave way to the flowing or curvilinear tracery incorporating the 'ogee' curve or kneel arch, a moulding composed of two shallow S-shaped curves meeting in a sharp point. Victorian replicas of this curve, the hallmark of the decorated style can be seen in the upper windowhead tracery of the north, south and west walls. A less common variation on the curvilinear theme can be seen in the triple lights of the east window where the matching symmetrical curves are reminiscent of the open wings of a butterfly.

 A sense of unity is brought to the internal overall design by the octagonal form of the piers being repeated in the pulpit and the font. Similarly the 'ogee' curve of the window tracery is echoed in the fine carved oak panelling of both pulpit and reredos. The latter was designed by John Cory and donated by Mr Wheatley-Balme in 1887 to commemorate the golden jubilee of Queen Victoria.

 The Victorians were particularly fond of stained glass and, although not exceptional, the windows are typical of the period. The west windows were the gift of Mr Jones-Balme in 1898 in memory of is kinsmen. Most of the windows were the work of the London firm of Burlison and Grylls. The exception, and the most interesting one is the St Francis window. This was designed and made by Mr and Mrs Dean Walmsley in their Great Langdale studio in 1937-1938. It contains hand blown glass of exceptional clarity which on a bright day transmits light and colour into the church. The centre panel shows St Francis surrounded by the living things he loved as interpreted in a Langdale setting. A red squirrel, house martins, robins, oak trees, stone buildings and a stream all reflect the inspiration of Langdale to the artists who also included their pet dog.

 In the tower above the porch is the ringing chamber for a fine peel of six bells, the gift of Mr Wheatley-Balme. They were cast by George Mears in the Whitechapel Foundry, London. The firm also installed an Ellacombe Chiming Apparatus which enables the bells to be rung by one person when normal, full-circle, ringing is not possible. Teh bells were returned and rehung on a steel frame by John Taylor & Co. of Loughborough in 1959-1960 following a local appeal. The weights, in hundredweights, quarters and pounds.

 The clock was made my James Harrison (1791-1875) of Hull, a descendant of John Harrison, designer of the first maritime chronometer. It is said that the new clock was tested for five years (1858-1863) under all weather conditions before it was finally installed in the tower. It is a flat-bed turret clock similar in design to the well known clock at the Houses of Parliament (Big Ben) the forerunner of which may have been copied by Harrison when he built this, his first clock to this design. Originally there were dials only on the east, Mr Wheatley-Balme's approach to the church, and to the south, from which Mr Robinson would have travelled. An additional dial was added on the west side in 1993 in memory of two local residents. The clock was converted to automatic electrical winding in 1995 but without losing any of the original mechanism. Thus it stands as a superb example of the best of English turret clock making.

 For a great many years burials took place at Grasmere, the coffins having to be transported over the corpse road by Hunting Stile, which must have been a difficult journey especially in winter. In 1821 a petition in the name of Curate, the Reverend William Jackson, and his churchwardens, was presented to the Bishop of Chester seeking permission to allow burials in the churchyard. this was granted and the ground was consecrated by the bishop on 3rd September 1821. A further extension was sought by the Reverend Stephen Birkett, "the yard having become so full", and extra ground to the north and east of the chapel was consecrated by the Bishop on the 10th August 1849. With the continued growth of the population and with the new church taking up more of the space on the restricted site, there arose a need for an additional burial ground. This was provided on a piece of land south of the school. It was sold to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for a nominal sum by the Elterwater Gunpowder Company, who, rather oddly, retained the mining and mineral rights. It was consecrated by the Bishop of Carlisle on 9th August 1915. The old churchyard continued to be used for a time, the recorded burial being in 1942.

 Under laws passed in 1853, to safeguard public health from the dangers of disease spreading from overcrowded graveyards, the Home Secretary can order the closure of a yard for any further burials. Insufficient space alone, as distinct from health, is now sufficient for a closure order. The land still belongs to the church but responsibility for its care and maintenance passes to the district council, thus relieving the Parochial Church Council of this duty. An application was made and the Royal Assent to the closure was given on the 16th March 1992.

 The existing headstones in the old and the new churchyards have been recorded and the list deposited in the Kendal records office. It includes the benefactors John Robinson and his family and Frank Jones-Balme, but not Mr Wheatley-Balme who was buried in his home parish of Mirfield. Another headstone marks the site of the ashes of the historian George Macaulay Trevelyan who did so much to preserve the beauty of Langdale. The two large yew trees are believed to have been planted during the period of the second church by Reverend Owen Lloyd (1803-1841). The nephew of William Wordsworth's brother Charles, he and his family from Old Brathay were part of the poets circle. He was perpetual curate of Langdale from 1829, until his death. His gravestone, just to the west of the yews has the distinction of bearing a poem especially written in his memory by Wordsworth:-

 In the chapel-yard of Langdale, Westmorland
By playful smile, (alas ! too oft
A sad heart's sunshine) by a soft
And gentle nature, and a free
Yet modest hand of charity,
Through life was OWEN LLOYD endeared
To young and old; and how revered
Had been that pious spirit, a tide
Of humble mourners testified,
When, after pains dispensed to prove
The measure of God's chastening love,
Here, brought from far, his corse found rest,-
Fulfilment of his own request;-
Urged less for this Yew's shade, though he
Planted with such fond hope the tree
Less for the love of stream and rock,
Dear as they were, than that his flock,
When they no more their Pastor's voice
Could hear to guide them in their choice
Though good and evil, help might have,
Admonished, from his silent grave,
Of righteousness, of sins forgiven,
For peace on earth and bliss in heaven.