Church of St Kentigern is a Grade II* listed building in the Cumberland local planning authority area, England. First listed on 1 April 1957. A Medieval Church.

Church of St Kentigern

WRENN ID
brooding-gargoyle-jay
Grade
II*
Local Planning Authority
Cumberland
Constituency
Carlisle MP: Ms Julie Minns (Lab)
Country
England
Date first listed
1 April 1957
Type
Church
Period
Medieval
Address
Church of St Kentigern, Irthington
OS grid reference
NY 498 616
Coordinates
54.94683, -2.78406
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Church of St Kentigern is a church dating back to the 12th century, with alterations in the 14th century, renovations of 1849 by Bloxham of Rugby, and a tower added in 1897 for James Carruthers. The chancel is primarily constructed of dressed red sandstone from the nearby Roman Wall, featuring 19th-century ashlar dressings. The nave and tower are built of snecked ashlar, all under graduated slate roofs with decorative ridge tiles.

The three-story, northwest square tower has a pointed arch entrance and windows with hood-moulds, along with louvred vents to the bell chamber, angle buttresses, string courses, a castellated parapet, and a clock on the north face. The five-bay nave, externally remodeled in 1849, has pointed lancet windows with hood-moulds to the north and south aisles, trefoil clerestory windows with hood-moulds, and a west entrance featuring a trefoil head in an open pediment with dog-tooth decorations. The three-bay chancel has round-headed lancets set in 12th-century walls, with a tripartite east window. A 1897 vestry is located on the south wall.

Internally, the nave has four-bay arcades that Pevsner attributes to around 1170. These feature rounded columns with square abaci and rounded arches with one step and a slight chamfer. The capitals are carved with stylized leaves, partially cut away during the 14th century when the arcade was filled and the aisles demolished following a border raid. The chancel arch from the nave is composed of two orders of columns with spur and crocket capitals; the innermost order is a continuous roll, and the arch is decorated with rolls and dog-tooth motifs. Aisle windows have curvilinear leaded lights, and the east windows contain early 20th-century stained glass. The church has an open timber roof. A mid-19th-century oak-panelled porch is also present. The church contains a 19th-century table font with a 1911 brass cover, a 19th-century carved Gothic pulpit, and a brass eagle lectern, alongside other late 19th- or early 20th-century furnishings. The chancel displays 12th-century splays at the east end, and 19th-century replacements in enlarged original openings. A 12th-century south door, now inside the vestry, has a round-headed arch with incomplete dogtooth decoration. The churchyard retains rows of gravestones, some dating back to the 18th century, with one as early as the 1660s. A partially visible earlier graveslab is buried under the armac path.

Local climate

Church of St Kentigern sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 1,090 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 87% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 79% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 54 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 95% of listed buildings. Of these, 29 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.

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