St Bridget's Church is in the village of Brigham,

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. C ...

, England. It is an active Anglican

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the 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 community activities, ...

in the deanery of Solway, the archdeaconry of West Cumberland, and the

diocese of Carlisle The Diocese of Carlisle was created in 11 April 1132 by Henry I out of part of the Diocese of Durham, although many people of Cumbric descent in the area looked to Glasgow for spiritual leadership. The first bishop was Æthelwold, who was the k ...

. The church is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...

as a designated Grade I

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 ...

History

The church dates from the later part of the 11th century, with additions and alterations in the 12th and 13th centuries. The south

aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, par ...

was re-built in the about 1323 as a

chantry A chantry is an ecclesiastical term that may have either of two related meanings: # a chantry service, a Christian liturgy of prayers for the dead, which historically was an obiit, or # a chantry chapel, a building on private land, or an area i ...

for the rector, Thomas de Burgh.

Restoration Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration * Restoration ecology ...

of the church was carried out between 1864 and 1876 by

William Butterfield William Butterfield (7 September 1814 – 23 February 1900) was a Gothic Revival architect and associated with the Oxford Movement (or Tractarian Movement). He is noted for his use of polychromy. Biography William Butterfield was born in Lon ...

; this included adding the east window and the south windows of the chancel, and the

saddleback roof A saddleback roof is usually on a tower, with a ridge and two sloping sides, producing a 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 ...

on the tower. The timber roofs of 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 ...

and chancel also date from this restoration.

Fletcher Christian Fletcher Christian (25 September 1764 – 20 September 1793) was master's mate on board HMS ''Bounty'' during Lieutenant William Bligh's voyage to Tahiti during 1787–1789 for breadfruit plants. In the mutiny on the ''Bounty'', Christian se ...

, leader of the Mutiny on the ''Bounty'', was baptised in the church on the day of his birth in 1764.

Architecture

Exterior

St Bridget's is constructed in

calciferous sandstone Calciferous sandstone is a geological term relating to strata at the base of the Carboniferous formation, below the entire sequence of coal measures. This term may be unique to the UK. Typically this part of the geological sequence, as in the T ...

ashlar, and has a green slate roof. Its plan consists of a three- bay nave with a south aisle and south porch, and a two-bay chancel with a north vestry. At the west end is a three-storey tower with a

, and at the ends of the

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 ...

s are cross finials. The church contains elements of

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

and Gothic Revival architecture. The Norman features include a blocked doorway in the north wall, and the

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

between the nave and the south aisle. The ground floor of the tower is tunnel-vaulted.

Medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

cross slabs have been incorporated in the north wall and in the blocked west door.

Interior

Both the nave and the chancel have painted timber roofs. The south aisle contains a

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. Anglicans usually refer to the basin, calling it a piscina. For Roman Ca ...

, a

sedilia In church architecture, sedilia (plural of Latin ''sedīle'', "seat") are seats, usually made of stone, found on the liturgical south side of an altar, often in the chancel, for use during Mass for the officiating priest and his assistants, the ...

, and a recess for the tomb of Thomas de Burgh, who died in 1348. In the church are pieces of carved stone; these include an Anglo-Danish cross-socket, and fragments dating from the pre-Norman period. The east window contains stained glass depicting the Ascension, designed by Alexander Gibbs, and is a memorial to Rev John Wordsworth, son of

William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication '' Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's ' ...

, who was vicar of the church for 40 years. On each side of the east window are niches for statues. There is more glass by Gibbs in other windows, dating from 1865, and glass elsewhere by Cox & Buckley and Sons, from 1870. The font dates either from the 13th century or possibly from the 17th century. The two-manual organ was built in 1895 by W. Hill and Son of London.

External features

In the churchyard is a 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 ...

sundial dated 1684. It has a square shaft, the head is weathered and the gnomon is missing. The sundial is a Grade II listed structure. The churchyard also contains many carved gravestones from the 17th to the 19th centuries, and the table tomb of Fletcher Christian's father Charles.Alexander, Caroline (2003). ''The Bounty: the True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty''. New York: Viking. . pp. 359-60.

References