St Gregory's Church, Vale of Lune, also known as the Vale of Lune Chapel, is a redundant

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

church situated on the A684 road about to the west of Sedbergh,

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...

, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

, and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.

History

St Gregory's was built by the Upton family of

Ingmire Hall Ingmire Hall is a grade II listed 16th century country house built around the remains of a pele tower some 2 miles west of Sedbergh, Cumbria, England. The house was first erected for the Upton family in the 16th century. It was enlarged in the ...

in the 1860s. The

London and North Western Railway The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the L&NWR was the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom. In 1923, it became a constituent of the Lo ...

was at that time constructing the Ingleton Branch Line, and the company sent a scripture reader to minister to the navvies building the railway. The church was altered and enlarged in the 1900s; this included the installation of stained glass windows and the addition of a porch. It continued as the chapel to the Ingmire Estate until 1918. St Gregory's was declared redundant on 1 May 1984, and was

vested In law, vesting is the point in time when the rights and interests arising from legal ownership of a property is acquired by some person. Vesting creates an immediately secured right of present or future deployment. One has a vested right to an ...

in the Trust on 16 March 1992.

Architecture

The church is attached to a cottage. It is constructed in random rubble mixed stone with red

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

quoins and a

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. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

roof. The porch is built in rubble with yellow sandstone dressings and quoins. The roof is in

, and on it stands a long wooden lantern, glazed with five lights and with a

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

. The plan of the church consists of a

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

on a north–south axis, with a porch on the north, and a

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

acting as a cross-wing on the south. On the north

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

is a single

bellcote A bellcote, bell-cote or bell-cot is a small framework and shelter for one or more bells. Bellcotes are most common in church architecture but are also seen on institutions such as schools. The bellcote may be carried on brackets projecting from ...

containing a bell. The doorway to the porch is on the west side, over which is a small gable containing the

cross. On the north side of the porch is a small rectangular window, over which is a memorial plaque. On the west side of the church are three single-light windows. There are no windows on its east side adjoining the cottage. Inside the church are wooden fittings and furniture by

Waring & Gillow Waring & Gillow (also written as Waring and Gillow) was a noted firm of English furniture manufacturers and antique dealers formed in 1897 by the merger of Gillows of Lancaster and London and Waring of Liverpool. Background Gillow & Co. The firm ...

of Lancaster. The stained glass in the windows was designed by Frederick George Simon, and depicts images from nature, including river scenes, trees, plants, and birds and animals found in the locality.

References

External links

Visit Cumbria, with photographs
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Gregorys Church, Vale of Lune 19th-century Church of England church buildings Grade II listed churches in Cumbria Churches preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust Sedbergh

History

Architecture

See also

References

External links