Kirkby Stephen Parish Church is a

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

, located in Kirkby Stephen,

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

. The church is sometimes called "St Stephen's Church", possibly by analogy to the name of the town, but there is no evidence of a formal dedication to

Saint Stephen Stephen (; ) is traditionally venerated as the protomartyr or first martyr of Christianity."St ...

. It is a

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

building.

History

The church is approached from Kirkby Stephen market square, where it is almost hidden from view by the

cloister A cloister (from Latin , "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open Arcade (architecture), arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle (architecture), quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cat ...

s, built in 1810. It is sometimes called the "Cathedral of the Dales" and, in Cumbria, only Kendal Parish Church is larger. There have been three churches on this site. The first was built in the

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

era, and part of a cross shaft bearing a relief of

Loki Loki is a Æsir, god in Norse mythology. He is the son of Fárbauti (a jötunn) and Laufey (mythology), Laufey (a goddess), and the brother of Helblindi and Býleistr. Loki is married to the goddess Sigyn and they have two sons, Narfi (son of Lo ...

, the Norse god, shown bound and chained, survives from this period. The Anglo-Saxon church was replaced in 1170 by a Norman church, and walling from this period survives in the west wall of the north aisle. The church was mostly rebuilt again in , but has been significantly altered since; the main thirteenth-century survivals are the

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 ...

arcades, the north

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform ("cross-shaped") cruciform plan, churches, in particular within the Romanesque architecture, Romanesque a ...

, and the

piscina A piscina is a shallow basin placed near the altar of a church, or else in the vestry or sacristy, used for washing the communion vessels. The sacrarium is the drain itself. Lutherans and Anglicans usually refer to the basin, calling it a pisci ...

and

sedilia In church architecture, sedilia (plural of Latin ''sedīle'', "seat") are seats, typically made of stone, located on the liturgical south side of the altar—often within the chancel—intended for use by the officiating priest, deacon, an ...

in the chancel. The south aisle windows and south door were replaced in the fifteenth century, and the tower was built in the sixteenth century. The chancel, the chapels flanking it to north and south, and the south transept were rebuilt in 1847; the north wall of the north aisle and the south porch were rebuilt in 1871. The

clerestory A clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey; from Old French ''cler estor'') is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye-level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both. Historically, a ''clerestory' ...

and south aisle windows were also renewed in the nineteenth century, and much of the internal stonework was renewed or reworked. The church has no official dedication. There is no factual basis to support a dedication to St Stephen or the rumoured previous dedication to St John. However, the church is sometimes referred to as 'St Stephen's Church', with reference to the place-name of Kirkby Stephen.

Parish

The church is in a joint parish with St Andrew's Church in Crosby Garrett and St Mary's Church in

Mallerstang Mallerstang is a civil parishes in England, civil parish in the extreme east of Cumbria, and, geographically, a wikt:dale, dale at the head of the upper River Eden, Cumbria, Eden Valley. Originally part of Westmorland, it lies about south of t ...

. The church is also the home of the Roman Catholic congregation, following an official sharing agreement entered into in 1990.

Memorials

The north, or Wharton, chapel has a late sixteenth-century altar tomb with effigies of Thomas Wharton, 1st Baron Wharton (1495–1568) and his 2 wives. The south, or Hartley, chapel has an early fifteenth-century altar tomb with an effigy of Sir Richard Musgrave (died 1409), and a fifteenth-century altar tomb to Sir Richard Musgrave (died 1464). It is dedicated to St Paul.

Organ and bells

The church contains a three manual pipe organ dating from 1888. A specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register. The church has a

ring (The) Ring(s) may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell Arts, entertainment, and media Film and TV * ''The Ring'' (franchise), a ...

of 8 bells, with the tenor weighing 15 cwt and tuned to F; all except the 7th bell were cast by John Warner & Sons of London in 1877, the 7th was cast by Edward Seller in 1849.

Gallery

File:LokiStone England.jpg, The "

Stone", part of an Anglo-Saxon cross shaft File:Kirkby Stephen Stone by Petersen.jpg, Engraving of the "Loki Stone" by Julius Magnus Petersen

References