St Mary's Church, Wreay is the

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...

Wreay Wreay ( ) is a small English village that lies on the River Petteril in today's Cumbria. The M6 motorway, A6 trunk road and West Coast Main Line railway all skirt the village. Governance Wreay was once a civil parish, In 1931 it had a populat ...

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 ...

. It was designed by

Sara Losh Sara or Sarah Losh (1785 – 29 March 1853) was an English architect and designer. Her biographer describes her as an antiquarian, architect and visionary. She was a landowner of Wreay, Cumberland (now Cumbria), where her prime work, St Mary's ...

in about 1835 and built between 1840 and 1842. It is notable as the earliest known example in Britain of a revival of

Lombard architecture Lombard architecture refers to the architecture of the Kingdom of the Lombards, which lasted from 568 to 774 (with residual permanence in southern Italy until the 10th–11th centuries) and which was commissioned by Lombard kings and dukes. The ar ...

. It is a

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 ...

. Prominent in the churchyard are a mausoleum of Sara Losh's sister, Katharine, and a copy of the

Bewcastle Cross The Bewcastle Cross is an Anglo-Saxon cross which is still in its original position within the churchyard of St Cuthbert's church at Bewcastle, in the England, English county of Cumbria. The cross, which probably dates from the 7th or early 8th ...

Style and inspiration

St Mary's replaces an earlier parish church in Wreay. Losh funded the new church on condition that she was allowed to choose the design. She intended her design to follow the style of

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name ...

s of the

early Church Early Christianity (up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325) spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and beyond. Originally, this progression was closely connected to already established Jewish centers in the Holy Land and the Jewish ...

. But its style is in fact Lombard, which was a 7th-and 8th-century successor to early Christian architecture and predecessor of Romanesque. Lombard is an Italian style, but the church also includes French features. In the 1830s the architectural fashion for new churches was shifting from Neoclassical to

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

, but Losh chose neither. By the 1830s Britain had a very small number of buildings designed in a revival of

Norman architecture The term Norman architecture is used to categorise styles of Romanesque architecture developed by the Normans in the various lands under their dominion or influence in the 11th and 12th centuries. In particular the term is traditionally used fo ...

, which is a form of northern European Romanesque, but these do not seem to have been a direct influence on Losh either. Losh seems to have been inspired by architects in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

and

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

who had begun to revive Lombard architecture in the 1820s. She designed her church at the same time as Romanesque Revival architecture in the United Kingdom was pioneered by the architects TH Wyatt with the parish church at

Wilton, Wiltshire Wilton is a town and civil parish in Wiltshire (of which it was once the county town), England, with a rich heritage dating back to the Anglo-Saxons. Carpets have been manufactured at Wilton since the 18th century. Today it is overshadowed by i ...

and John Shaw Jr. with Christ Church, Watney Street in the East End of London, but she seems to have developed her ideas independently. Losh and her sister Katherine had been on the

Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tuto ...

. Neither was married. Katherine died in 1835 and Sara dedicated the church to her. In the churchyard is a mausoleum in which is a life-size marble statue of Katherine Losh that was sculpted by David Dunbar based on a sketch supplied by Sara. Dunbar worked locally. Losh innovated liturgically as well as architecturally. She designed the chancel with a freestanding altar, allowing the priest to face his congregation as he presided at the

Eucharist The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instit ...

. In doing so she followed early Christian practice, and broke with the Anglican tradition of standing either at the north end of the altar or, in the

High church The term ''high church'' refers to beliefs and practices of Christian ecclesiology, liturgy, and theology that emphasize formality and resistance to modernisation. Although used in connection with various Christian traditions, the term originate ...

Anglican tradition, facing east with one's back to the congregation. The practice became common in Anglican churches after the 1960s but was a radical departure in the 1840s.

Description

The church has a rectangular nave and a semicircular

apsidal In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In ...

chancel.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882), generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti (), was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhoo ...

admired Losh's works in Wreay and described St Mary's church as "extraordinary architectural works" with "a church of a byzantine style and other things ... full of beauty and imaginative detail, though extremely severe and simple" and "much more original than the things done by the young architects now." Losh decorated the church with many carved details both inside and out. Many are of plants or animals: birds, insects, flowers, foliage, corn ears, and a recurring motif of pine cones. A young local stonemason, William Hindson, carved the sculptures. A plaque in the church commemorates him. The style of the sculptures prefigures that of the Arts and Crafts movement of the 1890s and 1900s, which coincided with a small-scale revival of

Byzantine Revival architecture Neo-Byzantine architecture (also referred to as Byzantine Revival) was a revival movement, most frequently seen in religious, institutional and public buildings. It incorporates elements of the Byzantine style associated with Eastern and Orthod ...

. In the architecture and decorative arts of the early 1840s, St Mary's church at Wreay is pioneering and seems to be unique. File:Main Door, St Mary's Church, Wreay - geograph.org.uk - 174080.jpg, Main west door File:Wreay Church - window with insects and birds - geograph.org.uk - 561747.jpg, Stone window surround decorated with insects, birds and pinecones File:Wreay Church - window surround with shells and pine cones - geograph.org.uk - 561740.jpg, Stone window surround decorated with fossils, plants and pinecones File:Gravestone of Katharine and Sarah Losh - geograph.org.uk - 561751.jpg, Gravestone of Katharine and Sarah Losh in the churchyard

References

Bibliography

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wreay, Mary Church of England church buildings in Cumbria Grade II* listed churches in Cumbria

Style and inspiration

Description

See also

References

Bibliography

External links