St Kentigern's Church

St Kentigern's Church

Church built in 1885 to an unknown architect, in the Gothic Arts and Crafts style.

The church is constructed of coursed, roughly tooled red sandstone with red sandstone ashlar dressings. The roof is covered in Westmorland slate with a timber bellcote. Internally, the walls are lined with high quality warm red brick with moulded brick and yellow sandstone dressings.

The church is prominently positioned on a knoll surrounded by a churchyard. It follows a simple plan of a rectangular nave aligned roughly east to west, with an apsidal east end, a north porch, and a south vestry.

The exterior has moulded barge boards and short moulded bands to all gables, with short angled buttresses to most corners rising to the eaves as shallow projections. Windows to the nave and apse are single or double trefoil-headed lights with chamfered surrounds and splayed sills; double lights are set within square-headed openings. The nave has a timber bellcote astride the roof ridge at the west end with a slate pyramidal roof and finial.

The east end features a stone cross finial and a five-sided apse with a semi-pyramidal roof and a stone finial carved in relief. Each of the three broad faces of the apse has a single trefoil-headed lancet window. The north and south sides of the three-bay nave each have a two-light mullioned window separated by a buttress.

The north wall features a large gabled and buttressed porch at its westernmost bay. The entrance is an unusual ogee-headed opening within a stone ashlar surround defined by a pointed-arched hood mould with label stops. It retains an original ogee-headed timber boarded door complete with strap hinges and period door furniture. Above the entrance, a fish with a ring in its mouth is carved in relief within a semi-circular inset panel—a symbol of St Kentigern. The jambs either side of the entrance are solid with carved short engaged columns with scrolled capitals. The inscription "St Kentigern's Mission Hall" appears in Gothic script above and around the hood mould, and at the apex of the porch is a large stone inscribed with the date 1885 in the pattern of an IHS monogram.

On the south side, attached to the easternmost bay of the nave wall is a large full-height vestry, blind to all sides. Incorporated into the lower part of the south wall is a medieval grave slab in horizontal position, inscribed with a cross with broad fleur-de-lys terminals on a stepped base, flanked by a chalice and book with clasp. A faint saltaire cross design is also present, possibly representing crossed nails—a symbol of the Passion. At the junction of vestry and nave is a substantial oval chimney stack. The west end has a stepped three-light window defined by a moulded sill band and moulded hood mould.

Internally, the nave walls are divided into three bays by brick strip pilasters set between a moulded sill band and an eaves cornice. The nave has a timber arch braced collar truss roof structure with moulded king posts rising from the collars, springing from moulded stone corbels set quite low on the nave walls. Windows are set in segmental-headed openings with roll moulded jambs and segmental hood moulds. A Gothic font remains; wooden benches have been removed.

The apse features a full-height pointed arch similarly detailed with hood mould and impost band, fitted with an original timber screen comprising folding panelled doors to the lower half and timber lattice to the upper part. Wainscoting lines the lower parts of the apse, which also has a continuous hood mould to the windows and a brick band in purplish brick just below the eaves. Each of the three apse windows is fitted with geometric decorative stained glass. The two outer windows feature grid, lattice and circular designs with painted floral motifs to the upper circles, whilst the central window is mainly lattice and circular design with extensive painted floral motifs.

The vestry has a tall full-height original opening fitted with a curtain and an original cast-iron fire grate within a fireplace with similar detailing to the nave windows. The entrance porch retains two rows of original wooden coat pegs set within decorative metal fixings. Concrete floors run throughout.