St Mary's Church in the village of Gosforth, Cumbria, England, is an active

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 ...

parish church in the deanery of Calder, the archdeaconry of West Cumberland, and the diocese of Carlisle. Its

benefice A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...

is united with those of St Olaf, Wasdale Head, and St Michael, Nether Wasdale. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building. It is associated with "a unique Viking-age assemblage" of carved stones.

History

This has been a

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

site since the 8th century. The oldest fabric in the present church dates from the 12th century. The church was reconstructed in 1789, but most of the fabric currently present is the result of a virtual rebuilding by C. J. Ferguson between 1896 and 1899.

Architecture

St Mary's is constructed in stone with 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. Its plan consists of a nave, a north aisle, a south porch, a chancel and north vestries. The 19th-century rebuilding is in Decorated style. At the west end is a

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the s ...

led-out bellcote. The gabled porch leads to the south door, to the right of which is a blocked

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 ...

doorway, formerly on the north side of the church. There is a monument dated 1834 on the exterior of the north wall of the chancel. Inside the church is a four-

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...

north arcade, consisting of pointed arches carried on columns with octagonal

capitals Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

. The 14th-century chancel arch is set on richly carved Norman capitals. In a

niche Niche may refer to: Science *Developmental niche, a concept for understanding the cultural context of child development *Ecological niche, a term describing the relational position of an organism's species *Niche differentiation, in ecology, the ...

at the east end of the aisle are two carved Viking hogback stones. These are very rare pre-Norman tomb markers that were found under the foundations of a 12th-century wall of the church during restoration in 1896–97. The early 11th century is the latest possible date. The hogbacks are each in the shape of a house. The larger tomb has on its sides humans astride smaller serpents battling with larger serpents. The smaller stone has two armies thought to be concluding a truce. In and around the niche and in the porch are other fragments of medieval stones. The small octagonal

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...

dates from the 19th century. Also in the church is a Chinese bell dating from 1839, which was captured from the Anunghoy Fort in the

Battle of the Bogue The Battle of the Bogue () was fought between British and Chinese forces in the Pearl River Delta, Guangdong province, China, on 23–26 February 1841 during the First Opium War. The British launched an amphibious attack at the Humen strait ( ...

(1841) on the

Canton River The Pearl River, also known by its Chinese name Zhujiang or Zhu Jiang in Mandarin pinyin or Chu Kiang and formerly often known as the , is an extensive river system in southern China. The name "Pearl River" is also often used as a catch-al ...

. It was donated to the church in 1844. One of the stone slabs outside the church is the so-called Gosforth fishing stone, which is believed to be the same artist who carved the cross. It represents Thor and the giant Hymir fishing for Jörmungandr, the serpent which encircles the world, below a scene of a hart struggling with a serpent. It is possibly a remnant of another cross. The stained glass, most of which is by Ward and Hughes, dates mainly from the late 19th century. The two-

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pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks ...

was made by Conacher and Company of Huddersfield, and rebuilt and expanded in 1984 by Sixsmith.

External features

The most important feature in the churchyard is the

Gosforth Cross The Gosforth Cross is a large stone monument in St Mary's churchyard at Gosforth in the English county of Cumbria, dating to the first half of the 10th century AD. Formerly part of the kingdom of Northumbria, the area was settled by Scandinavia ...

, a Viking stone cross dating from the early part of the 10th century. It is a sandstone structure standing high, and is elaborately carved with human figures and beasts, mainly depicting scenes from Scandinavian mythology. This is the tallest Viking cross in the country. It is designated as a scheduled monument. Another cross of similar age has been cut down to form a

sundial A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a flat ...

. In the northeast corner of the churchyard is a hut or shed that has been constructed from left-over stones, including 13th-century grave-covers, pieces of stone carved with zigzags, and a

. The structure is listed at Grade II. Also in the churchyard are three tombstones bearing dates between 1711 and 1729, each of which has been listed at Grade II.

Gallery

File:St Mary's church gosforth cumbria.jpg, Interior view of St Mary's church, Gosforth, Cumbria. File:Gosforth hogsback tombs.jpg, Hogback tombs in the church File:Gosforth cross.jpg,

Gosforth cross The Gosforth Cross is a large stone monument in St Mary's churchyard at Gosforth in the English county of Cumbria, dating to the first half of the 10th century AD. Formerly part of the kingdom of Northumbria, the area was settled by Scandinavia ...

from the NW File:Gosforth capital.JPG, Norman capital with three faces File:Gosforth fishing.jpg, The "fishing stone" in the church; possibly remnant of a second cross, showing Thor fishing. File:Tombs in Gosforth.JPG, Tombs in the porch File:Gosforth cross SW.JPG, View of the Viking Cross and church, from the SW File:Second Gosforth cross.JPG, The stump of the second cross File:Humphrey senhouse gosforth.jpg, Memorial to Humphrey Senhouse, Gosforth, Cumbria File:C A Parker grave gosforth cumbria.jpg, The grave of local antiquarian and historian, Charles Arundel Parker.

References

External links