Parish Church Of St Mary

Parish Church of St Mary, Maryport

The Parish Church of St Mary originated in 1760 as a chapel built by Humphrey Senhouse to serve the population of his new coal port of Maryport, named after his wife. The church was rebuilt in 1847, from which period the tower survives, and underwent further enlargement and restoration in 1890-92 by J.H. Martindale, architect of Carlisle. Only the font and Senhouse's memorial survive from the original 1760 church.

The building is constructed of coursed hammer-dressed red sandstone with freestone dressings and has a slate roof. It comprises an aisled nave, a west tower with north and south porches, a chancel, and a south-east vestry.

The tower is in the simple Gothic style of the early 19th century, arranged in four stages with diagonal buttresses, an embattled parapet, and bold but simple corner pinnacles. Its lower stage forms a porch with a west doorway featuring a continuous double chamfer and doors inserted in 2007. The second stage has lancets, the third stage has a round clock in a lozenge frame on the west face, and the upper stage contains three stepped lights with louvres. The remainder of the church is mainly in the Decorated style. The porches on the north and south sides of the tower are identical, with west windows of six cusped lights and north and south doorways decorated with relief foliage in the tympana. Above them, the three-light aisle west windows are without tracery and possibly re-use windows from 1847.

The south aisle has an embattled parapet and buttresses with gable caps. It is six unequal bays with three-light windows, except for an 1847 lancet at the east end and a two-light window to accommodate a shallow gabled porch to the former Senhouse family pew. The north aisle is similar but with three-light and one-light windows, and a two-light east window with plate tracery that appears to be re-used from the 1847 church. The chancel is as high as the nave and has diagonal buttresses with a freestone parapet and gables. It features a simple east window of three stepped lights, more likely from 1847 than 1892, and a two-light Decorated south window. The south-east vestry has square-headed mullioned windows and extends beyond the east end of the chancel.

The interior contains a wide and high nave with a short sanctuary, suggesting that the present building preserves the dimensions of the earlier building and that it once had a gallery. The narrow low tower arch with continuous moulding dates from 1847 and is surmounted by a 1760 date tablet and an 1892 oriel window. Four-bay nave arcades have octagonal piers and are continuous with two-bay chancel arcades with round piers and leaf-band capitals. The sanctuary arch has continuous mouldings. The nave and chancel roof spans 11½ bays with king posts and raking struts carried on brackets. The sanctuary has a closed polygonal roof with moulded ribs and boarded panels. The east window features a shafted rere arch with blind tracery. Walls are plastered, with stone floors in the nave and aisles with raised floorboards below pews, and marble tiles in the chancel.

The baluster font is dated 1760. In the south aisle is a classical wall tablet with open pediment commemorating Humphrey Senhouse (died 1776), founder of the church. The pews have fielded-panel ends and backs of mid-19th-century character; some have been removed from the west end. Churchwardens' pews against the west wall have added canopies and are accompanied by early 19th-century metal plaques with the Lord's Prayer, Apostle's Creed, and Ten Commandments. A Jacobean-style pulpit is dated 1837, though its studied authenticity suggests a later date, and it is attached to a low screen incorporating Jacobean and linenfold panelling dated after 1886. Choir stalls incorporate open balustrading to the frontal and have ends with arm rests. The sanctuary walls have Gothic panelling incorporating a reredos with canopied niches, dated after 1906. The rood beam with inscription in raised letters dates from after 1910 and articulates the change from nave to chancel. A war-memorial north chapel has screens with panelled dado, open tracery, and rich brattishing, with the north wall panelled and incorporating a 1914-18 war-memorial plaque.

The aisles contain a complete scheme of stained-glass windows narrating scenes from the life of Christ, created by the Atkinson brothers of Newcastle in 1892. The chapel war-memorial east window is by Heaton Butler & Bayne. A mosaic panel depicting St Martin serves as a memorial to Isabella Scott Newby (died 1922). The Royal Arms, dated 1661, painted on boards, was brought from another church.

The church is prominently sited at a major junction in the town and presents a harmonious appearance despite being the work of two periods. The fine west tower preserves its 1840s character, and the interior contains well-preserved 19th and early 20th-century fittings, along with a complete scheme of late 19th-century stained-glass that contributes significantly to the internal coherence of the building.