Church Of St Matthew

Church of St Matthew, Bainbridge

A parish church built in 1909 by Thomas Gerard Davidson, constructed in roughly coursed sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings and a Westmorland slate roof laid in diminishing courses with mitred hips.

The church has a cruciform plan comprising a nave, chancel (aligned north-east), baptistery or narthex, and small north and south transepts. The chancel has a low hipped roof and three square windows with stone quatrefoil tracery. The transepts extend to either side with roofs slightly lower than the chancel; the south transept has a small square window immediately below the eaves. The nave roof rises above the chancel and transepts, with a circular window in the gable end featuring quatrefoil tracery, raised gables, and a stone cross at the apex.

The south elevation displays the gable-ended south transept with a small rectangular window at the apex. The nave body has three rectangular windows with leaded lights, divided by triangular buttresses terminating below roof level. The steeply pitched roof extends left to cover an entrance porch formed by a triangular buttress on one side and an extension of the west wall on the other. Two steps lead to a wooden panelled door with large decorative hinges in a plain stone surround.

The north elevation shows the gable end of the north transept with a central two-light stone mullioned window. A tall stone chimney stack rises from the right side of the transept roof. The nave matches the south side with three buttress-divided windows. At the right end, the roof extends to cover the baptistery or narthex, which has a two-light stone mullioned window matching that in the north transept.

The west end presents the nave gable rising above the hipped roof of the baptistery or narthex. The gable is tile-hung with a projecting gable at the apex, beneath which hangs a single bell. The baptistery or narthex roof has a large overhang forming the entrance roof. Square buttresses flank a central leaded four-light stone mullioned window below the eaves.

Internally, the chancel is defined by a raised floor level and reduced roof height, separated from the nave by a pointed arch in exposed stone. The ceiling incorporates a complex arrangement of dark wood beams spanning the transept and hipped chancel roofs. Walls are whitewashed, and the three square east windows contain plain glass. A wooden altar rail on wrought iron brackets and a further step define the sanctuary. The south transept contains a vestry separated by a half-height wall; the north transept has a small kitchen with wooden wall cupboards, separated from the chancel by a wooden plank door.

The nave ceiling is supported by two scissor trusses on plain stone corbels, executed in plain dark wood. A circular window sits above the chancel arch. Walls are whitewashed with windows containing modest yellow stained glass motifs. Fixed wooden pews run down each side of the central aisle, with an archway at the rear matching that to the chancel. The baptistery or narthex serves as entrance porch, with a door featuring an exposed stone relieving arch. All windows have plain leaded lights; furniture is limited to a fixed wooden bench along the rear wall. A curved triangular opening above the west windows is blocked by later tile-hanging on the upper gable. A stone memorial plaque records members of the Thwaite family from Countersett dating to the nineteenth century. Two further memorials flanking the chancel arch commemorate heating and lighting donations by the Outhwaite family in the 1950s.

The church was commissioned by Reverend Frederick Squibb in 1906 to replace a ruinous and inconvenient seventeenth-century church that stood north of the settlement. Money of £650 estimated as necessary was raised by 1908, a parishioner donated the land, and the church was consecrated in October 1909 at a final cost of £815. Thomas Gerard Davidson, who had a London practice and undertook several church projects nationally, served as architect. The sanctuary was originally designed with a curved apse, never executed. The tiled upper gable at the west end is a later addition, and heating and lighting systems are later installations; it remains unclear whether the chimney is original.