Location : Eskdale Green / Gosforth / Drigg
Map - Ordnance Survey - NY 092005
St Paul's Church is a good example of a small, simple Victorian Church, complete with banners and stained glass windows. In 1865 the old church that stood here was demolished, and work started on a new one, designed by Miles Thompson of Kendal. Further renovations were carried out in 1887 to commemorate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee.
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In the churchyard is the ancient Irton Cross, which stands some 10 feet high and was erected
in the early 9th Century, before the Danish & Norse invasions.
This is one of the most important crosses in Cumbria, and unlike the one at St Mary's Church Gosforth, bears no figures either human or animal. It contains vine scrolls and step and fret patterning, close interlacing and rosettes, all of Irish origin. |
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The tower contains a peal of eight bells given by Sir Thomas Brocklebank, the shipping magnate, who set up the Brocklebank Shipping Co in Whitehaven.
There are memorials to various members of the Brocklebank family, and to Admiral Lutwidge, whose family were important in the tobacco trade to Whitehaven.
There are many stained glass windows in the church, and two pairs of these are designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, and made by William Morris & Co. These show St Paul, The Tiburtine Sibyl, St Agnes with a lamb, and St Catherine of Alexandria.
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| The Tiburtine Sybil, originally designed for Jesus College, Cambridge, but re-used many times. The original cartoon drawing (1875) for this is in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. |
A Church leaflet gives much information about the Church, the windows, the memorials, the Cross, the bells and the churchyard.
Aerial photo by Simon Ledingham.
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