'Langdale (Chapel Stile) - Holy Trinity Church'

Location : Grasmere
Map - Ordnance Survey - SD 321055

Photo by Tony Richards

Holy Trinity Church stands at the foot of Silver How, looking out over the village of Chapel Stile, with the slate quarries in the distance. The present Church was built in 1857-8 to a design by Cory and Ferguson of Carlisle. The style is decorated Gothic, prominent throughout Britain in the 14th Century, and a favourite style with the Victorian neo-gothic revivalists. Before the Church was built, services took place in Grasmere,

The Church is built of local slate, a metamorphic grey-green rock of hard, enduring quality. Contrasting sandstone was chosen for the window surrounds and architraves.

The Church contains several stained glass windows, which whilst not being exceptional, are typical of the period. Most of the windows are by the London firm of Burlison and Grylls. The St Francis window (above) was designed and made by Mr and Mrs Dean Walmsley in their Great Langdale studio in 1937-38. It contains hand-blown glass of exceptional clarity, transmitting light and colour into the Church on a bright day. The centre panel (detail above) shows St Francis surrounded by the living things he loved, in a Langdale setting - a red squirrel, house martins, robins, rabbits, oak trees, stone buildings and a stream.

The Church clock, by James Harrison, is similar in design to that at the Houses of Parliament (Big Ben).

For many years burials took place at Grasmere, but consecrated ground was created at Langdale in 1821. The Churchyard contains an interesting gravestone for the Reverand Owen Lloyd. He was the nephew of William Wordsworth's brother Charles, and his gravestone bears a poem especially written in his memory by Wordsworth.