Church of St John the Baptist is a Grade II listed building in the Cumberland local planning authority area, England. First listed on 14 July 1989. Church.
Church of St John the Baptist
- WRENN ID
- silent-spire-mist
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Cumberland
- Constituency
- Whitehaven and Workington MP: Josh MacAlister (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 14 July 1989
- Type
- Church
- Address
- Church of St John the Baptist, Morass Road, Beckermet
- OS grid reference
- NY 018 067
- Coordinates
- 54.44633, -3.51451
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St John the Baptist, built between 1878 and 1879 by J Birtley of Kendal, is a Grade II listed building located on Morass Road in Beckermet. Constructed from dressed stone with ashlar dressings, it features a slate roof with tile cresting. The church comprises a nave, a south-west tower, a north aisle, a west narthex, and a chancel with a north vestry and a south organ loft. The building has coped gables, and the 4-bay nave includes 2-light windows on the south side. The octagonal tower at the south-west corner has flat gabled buttresses, straight-headed louvred bell openings, and a pyramidal roof. The lean-to narthex has two pointed lights above and a window with three elliptical-headed lights, along with a Tudor-headed north door and nook shafts. The lean-to aisle features paired lights with shouldered lintels. The chancel has a weathered base and sill course, a 3-light east window, and two lancets on the south side. The gabled organ loft includes two lancets and a rose window on the south, with a west entrance featuring a flat gable, an east lateral stack, and two 18th-century headstones. The lean-to vestry has an east entrance with a shouldered lintel and three lights with a shouldered lintel on the north side.
Inside, the church has a 4-bay arcade supported by octagonal and round piers, with spandrels and walls above made of polychrome brick and stone, featuring a block letter inscription. The chancel arch includes an inscription around it and a traceried screen dating from around 1920. There is an arch leading to the organ loft with a wall plate extending across the recess. Above the altar, there is a block letter inscription of the Ten Commandments, along with some Anglo-Danish cross fragments and Victorian royal arms.
Local climate
Church of St John the Baptist sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 1,570 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 99% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 99% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 16 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 84% of listed buildings. Of these, 7 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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