Church of St Patrick

Church of St Patrick

This is a Gothic Revival church designed by Anthony Salvin and built in 1853 by Levi Hodgson and Robert McAdam of Patterdale. A parish hall extension was added in 1995 by BDP Preston.

The church is constructed of random coursed Lakeland slate with squared slate quoins, red sandstone dressings, and a diminishing Westmorland slate roof. Windows feature stained or leaded glass throughout.

The building is set within a stone-walled graveyard and comprises a rectangular nave with a south porch, a chancel, an attached north east tower, and a vestry.

The exterior displays characteristic Gothic Revival features with prominent quoins and pitched roofs. The tower, which is three storeys with upper stages set inset, has a saddleback roof and features a single cusped window to the ground floor and similar paired windows to the upper levels on the north elevation. The east window and south chancel windows have geometrical tracery with neatly laid slate relieving arches over sandstone hood moulding. The west elevation of the tower has a geometrical window and short stair tower with a narrow lean-to porch featuring a shoulder-arched entrance. A single storey vestry is attached to the west side of the tower with paired cusped windows.

The nave's south side has a buttress and two decorated windows. The gabled south porch features a pointed arch entrance with double wooden doors and a cusped window to the left. The west end has a narrow geometric window. The north side of the nave has been extended with a range in similar materials to the original building, featuring stone mullioned windows.

The interior chancel has painted plaster walls with exposed red sandstone dressings. An oak panelled reredos with carved cornice frames the space, and the original oak altar table is reached by a single stone step. The east window contains stained glass depicting the Crucifixion by Henry Hughes. A pointed chancel arch springs from moulded corbels at impost height with tooled stonework. To the left is a carved oak pulpit. A large pipe organ is set within a pointed arched organ loft with choir stalls both in front and opposite, featuring carved detail.

The nave has painted plaster walls and a pitch pine scissor-braced roof supported on carved stone corbels, containing a full complement of wooden benches. A significant embroidery titled 'the Good Shepherd' (1935–6) by Ann Macbeth is displayed on the north wall, featuring a background view towards Kirkstone from Wordsworth cottage, the artist's house. Beneath this is a small panel with the score of Parry's music for William Blake's Jerusalem, and a brass memorial to local schoolmaster Aaron Nelson. The south wall displays a reproduction of Ann Macbeth's 'Patterdale Nativity'. At the west end of the nave, the main entrance is mirrored by a twentieth-century opening to the right leading into the parish hall. The font, positioned at the front of the west altar, has a pedestal that may be part of a medieval cross. One stone corbel on the north side of the nave bears a flagpole with an ensign from HMS Lion. The entrance porch has plain walls with benches and features a pointed arch main entrance with moulded surround and wooden door.

The church is situated within a small churchyard surrounded by a drystone wall with boulder, flat and triangular copings.