Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary, Rydal

This is a parish church built in 1824 by George Webster of Keswick, with a chancel added in 1884. The church is constructed of local slatestone rubble with larger quoins and freestone dressings, with a slate roof.

The building comprises a nave with a lower and narrower chancel, a west tower with a vestry on its south side, a north porch, and a north organ chamber. The nave is designed in the simple Perpendicular style characteristic of the 1820s. Both nave and chancel have moulded cornices and coped gables that return above the eaves as short parapets. The nave is four bays with 2-light windows featuring wooden tracery. Lead rainwater heads dated 1824 are visible on the nave.

The three-stage tower has diagonal buttresses in the lower stage and panelled clasping buttresses in the upper stage, rising above the embattled parapet as corner pinnacles. The west doorway sits within a deep splay and has a segmental pointed arch, with a single pointed window above it. The second stage contains round clock faces set in square moulded frames beneath drip moulds, and Y-tracery belfry openings with louvres. On the north side of the tower is an embattled porch, now roofless, which has arched east and west entrances with continuous deep splays opening directly to the gallery stair. The chancel has diagonal buttresses, a 3-light Perpendicular east window, 2-light Decorated and 1-light south windows, and a single-light north window. The organ chamber has a plain parapet and 2-light Decorated east window. The embattled gabled vestry, added to the south side of the tower, has a south lancet window.

Inside, the church is plain in character. A simple 2-centred chancel arch with roll moulding separates the nave from the chancel. The nave has a flat 20th-century ceiling, whilst the chancel has a polygonal boarded ceiling with moulded ribs on a moulded cornice. The walls are plastered, and the nave retains original doors with vertical panels, as does the gallery. A parquet floor is laid in the nave with decorative tiles in the chancel. Access to the gallery is by a stone stair from the north porch, fitted with iron balusters and a wooden rail, leading to a panelled gallery and tower doors.

The west gallery stands on three Tudor arches with posts, the central bay narrower and decorated with quatrefoils in the spandrels. The gallery front has Gothic panelling with a glazed screen added in 1995 above it. The polygonal wooden pulpit, decorated with blind cusped panels, and the plain octagonal font are original fittings. The benches date from the late 19th century and feature moulded ends incorporating arm rests.

The stained glass includes windows by Henry Holiday (1891) commemorating the step-daughters of Dora, William Wordsworth's daughter, and a memorial brass plaque below it of some interest. Other windows commemorate figures including Dr Thomas Arnold, headmaster of Rugby School, who died in 1842 and holidayed nearby.

The church was built as a chapel-of-ease with Lady le Fleming of Rydal Hall as patron. George Webster of Keswick (1797–1864) was the architect; his original specification for the church is held in the Cumbria Record Office, Kendal. Webster was a prominent local architect responsible for over a dozen churches. William Wordsworth, who lived at nearby Rydal Mount from 1813 until his death in 1850, helped choose the site and composed two poems inspired by the foundation of the church. He served as chapel warden in 1833 but was critical of the design, expressing regret that the architect had not furnished an elevation better suited to the narrow mountain pass site and better constructed internally for worship. The 11-year-old John Ruskin visited in 1830 and noted the chasteness and elegance of the windows and the neatly carved pulpit. The chapel has numerous associations with other 19th-century literary and cultural figures and hosts an annual Wordsworth Memorial Lecture. Wordsworth complained that the original church lacked a chancel or vestry, a deficiency remedied in 1884 when the chancel, organ chamber, and vestry were added.