St James' Church is in the village of Great Ormside,

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 Appleby, the archdeaconry of Carlisle, 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 parish is united with nine other parishes and thirteen places of worship to form the Heart of Eden benefice. 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 ...

. It stands on top of a circular mound overlooking the River Eden.

History

The mound on which the church stands was a sacred site before the coming of Christianity, and was used as a burial place by the

Vikings Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and ...

. The date of the first Christian church on the site is unknown, but 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 ...

of the present church dates from the late 11th century. A north

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 added and the

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. Ov ...

was widened in about the middle of the 12th century. The west tower was built in the following century. In the early 16th century the chancel was further enlarged, making it wider than the nave. The Hilton chapel was built in 1723, replacing the former north aisle. The church was restored in 1885–86 by C. J. Ferguson at a cost of £732 (). During the restoration the north

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 * ...

was rebuilt,

tracery Tracery is an architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the stonework elements that support the ...

was installed in the windows of the Hilton Chapel, and a new south doorway and porch were added to the west of the original doorway. In 1893 the tower was re-roofed.

Architecture

Exterior

The church is constructed in

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 ...

rubble Rubble is broken stone, of irregular size, shape and texture; undressed especially as a filling-in. Rubble naturally found in the soil is known also as 'brash' (compare cornbrash)."Rubble" def. 2., "Brash n. 2. def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionar ...

. The roofs are slated on the south side, and covered in stone flags on the north. Its plan consists of a nave with a porch to the south and the Hilton Chapel to the north, a chancel wider than the nave, a north

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

, and a west tower. The nave measures by , and the chancel by . The tower is about square. The basic architectural style is

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 ...

. The tower is in three stages, with large angular

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral ( ...

es. It is defensive in nature, with no external doorway, three tiers of narrow lancet windows on the west and south sides, and without windows on the north side. The height of the tower has been reduced, with a few corbels of the former

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). ...

remaining. It is surmounted by a pitched roof. On the south side of the church is 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 depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

d porch, to the east of which is the original doorway, now partly blocked and with an inserted window. The original doorway is tall and narrow, with a round-arched head, and a blank tympanum. To the right of this are a round-headed window and a 14th-century two-light

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...

ed window. In the south wall of the chancel are three windows, with a doorway below the central window. The east window has three lights. The windows in the Hilton Chapel are round-headed.

Interior

Inside the church is a tall, narrow, round-headed doorway leading into the tower, and an upper doorway, the latter being another defensive feature. Inside the tower is a basement and two internal floors. It contains two bells, but only one can be used. Between the nave and the chapel is a two- bay Norman arcade with round arches. In the chapel is a

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...

dated 1723. In the north wall between the chapel and the chancel is a 14th-century hagioscope. The south wall of the chancel contains a combined

aumbry An ambry (or ''almery'', ''aumbry''; from the medieval form ''almarium'', cf. Lat. ''armārium'', "a place for keeping tools"; cf. O. Fr. ''aumoire'' and mod. armoire) is a recessed cabinet in the wall of a Christian church for storing sacred vesse ...

and

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 ...

in two recesses with semicircular heads. The font is Norman, and consists of a square bowl on a 19th-century base.

Churchyard

In 1823 the Ormside bowl was discovered in the churchyard. This is an Anglo-Saxon bowl dating from the 7th or 8th century, and now held in the

Yorkshire Museum The Yorkshire Museum is a museum in York, England. It was opened in 1830, and has five permanent collections, covering biology, geology, archaeology, numismatics and astronomy. History The museum was founded by the Yorkshire Philosophical Soc ...

. A further discovery was made in 1898, this being the burial of a Viking warrior and his sword. The sword is held in the Tullie House Museum in Carlisle. In the churchyard is the socket for a cross dated 1643. A new cross was added in 1897 to celebrate

Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria was officially celebrated on 22 June 1897 to mark the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession on 20 June 1837. Queen Victoria was the first British monarch ever to celebrate a Diamond ...

. The cross and the socket are listed at Grade II.

Notes and references

Notes Citations

External links

Visit Cumbria
{{DEFAULTSORT:Great Ormside, St James' Church Church of England church buildings in Cumbria Grade I listed churches in Cumbria English churches with Norman architecture Diocese of Carlisle