St John the Evangelist's Church is in the village of Newton Arlosh,

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 Carlisle, 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 ...

. It was built as a

fortified church A fortified church is a church that is built to serve a defensive role in times of war. Such churches were specially designed to incorporate military features, such as thick walls, battlements, and embrasures. Others, such as the Ávila Cathedra ...

, one of a number of such buildings near the Scottish border. It was restored and extended in the 19th century. 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

St John's was built in 1303 by the monks of nearby

Holm Cultram Abbey Holmcultram Abbey (alternatively Holm Cultram Abbey or Holme Cultram Abbey) was a Cistercian monastery in what is now the village of Abbeytown in Cumbria, United Kingdom. Founded in 1150, the abbey was suppressed in 1538 during the Dissolution ...

Abbeytown Abbeytown, also known as Holme Abbey, is a village and civil parish in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England. The name Abbeytown dates to the mid-17th century (''The Towne of the Abbey'', ''Abbey Towne''; ''Abbeytown'' from mid-18th centur ...

. It was granted a

licence to crenellate In medieval England, Wales and the Channel Islands a licence to crenellate (or licence to fortify) granted the holder permission to fortify his property. Such licences were granted by the king, and by the rulers of the counties palatine within th ...

on 11 April 1304. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century, the church remained in ruins until it was restored and extended 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 1844. The extension involved the building of a

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 ...

at right angles to the north 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 ...

. In 1894 the church was further restored and refurnished.

Architecture

Exterior

The original church was built in large 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 ...

blocks mixed with cobbles and the extension is in red sandstone; all the roofs are covered in sandstone slates, other than the lead on the roof of the tower. Its plan consists of a square fortified west tower with very thick walls, and a two- bay fortified nave. Extending to the north is a two-bay chancel with an

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 ...

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 ...

on its east wall. There is no external entrance to the tower; it is entered from the interior of the church at the level of the first floor. Its ground level is barrel vaulted. Inside the tower a stone spiral staircase leads to a chamber on the upper floor containing a fireplace. All the windows in the tower are arrow-slits, some of them original and some from the

Victorian restoration The Victorian restoration was the widespread and extensive refurbishment and rebuilding of Church of England churches and cathedrals that took place in England and Wales during the 19th-century reign of Queen Victoria. It was not the same proc ...

. The upper part of the tower has been restored; it has a battlemented

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'). ...

and, on the south side a projecting

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * Mi ...

on corbels. In the south wall of the nave is a narrow doorway and more arrow-slit windows. The chancel has a round-arched doorway and lancet windows; in the vestry are round-headed windows. Standing on the ridge of the nave roof towards its east end is a carved eagle by Sarah Losh.

Interior

There is further work by Sarah Losh inside the church. On the east wall of the nave, flanking the position of the original altar are corbels in the shape of rams' heads. Also by her is the

lectern A lectern is a reading desk with a slanted top, on which documents or books are placed as support for reading aloud, as in a scripture reading, lecture, or sermon. A lectern is usually attached to a stand or affixed to some other form of support. ...

with a base of bog oak, and another base in the form of a palm tree that was intended to form part of the pulpit. The oldest item of furniture is the font, brought from Holm Cultram Abbey. It dates from the 13th century and consists of an octagonal bowl with

crocket A crocket (or croquet) is a small, independent decorative element common in Gothic architecture. The name derives from the diminutive of the French ''croc'', meaning "hook", due to the resemblance of crockets to a bishop's crosier. Description ...

ed gables on a fragmentary stem.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Newton Arlosh, John the Evanglist Churches completed in 1303 14th-century church buildings in England Churches completed in 1844 19th-century Church of England church buildings Church of England church buildings in Cumbria Grade I listed churches in Cumbria Fortified church buildings in England Diocese of Carlisle Gothic Revival architecture in Cumbria Allerdale

History

Architecture

Exterior

Interior

See also

References