Church Of Our Lady And St Wilfred

The Church of Our Lady and St. Wilfrid is a Roman Catholic church constructed in 1862 by A.M. Dunn. It is built of rock-faced stone with ashlar dressings, and has a mixed Lakeland and Welsh slate roof. The church is a six-bay, unaisled design with a polygonal apse, a south-east bell turret, a south transept, and a south-west sacristy. A cloister links the transept to the presbytery. The architectural style is described as Free 14th century.

The building has a chamfered plinth, stepped buttresses, a hollow-chamfered eaves cornice with grotesque heads to the rainwater pipes, and coped gables with moulded kneelers and finial crosses. The west end features double, diagonally-boarded doors within a moulded arch with two orders of colonnettes, flanked by small lancets. Above the doors are three stepped 2-light windows, all with hoodmoulds and head stops. The north and south walls have trefoiled lancets. The south sacristy, designed as a porch, has a 2-light window. The transept contains two 2-light windows, surmounted by a large wheel window and a cusped niche in the gable. The lower cloister to the east has two 2-light windows. The apse features a 3-light east window, accompanied by a cusped niche above, all within a slightly projecting gable end; 2-light windows are situated on the east side. The extruded bell turret includes stair loops and an octagonal upper section with trefoil panels and trefoil-headed niches under gabled hoods with richly carved beast stops, terminating in a short, tegulated stone spire.

The interior is a single, unbroken space with a plastered finish. The south transept serves as a vestry, with a gallery above. A western screen and a jettied, canted gallery with carving are present. A Lady Chapel contains a carved stone reredos below the gallery on the south side. The arcaded apse is adorned with figures of saints in trefoiled carved panels, separated by marble shafts. The canted reredos has a central pinnacle designed as a miniature steeple, flanked by crocketed niches containing sculpted groups. Pinnacled sides project forward, displaying figures of saints under canopies at each end. A richly carved pulpit depicts figures of saints and a representation of Christ preaching. Stations of the Cross are rendered as oil paintings on canvas, housed within Gothic wood panels. The large west window depicts the Adoration of the Lamb in an asymmetrical composition of high quality.

The cloister originally linked the church to buildings to the east, which housed a small community of Benedictine monks; these buildings have since been altered and are not of special interest.