Church Of Holy Trinity And St George

This is a Roman Catholic church located on New Road, Kendal, built in 1835 by George Webster, with sculpture by Thomas Duckett. It was opened in 1837. The church is oriented south-east/north-west, with the altar originally at the north-west end (the description refers to the liturgical orientation where the altar is at the east end).

The front of the church is built of hammer-dressed ashlar on a chamfered plinth with chamfered strings. It features stepped buttresses at each corner, and octagonal buttresses flanking a projecting central bay, all topped with pinnacles. A castellated parapet and apex cross complete the facade. The sides are of hammer-dressed limestone blocks on a chamfered plinth, while the rear is of slobbered rubble. The roofs are graduated slate, with corbelled eaves. The church comprises a 6-bay aisleless nave with a projecting porch to the west and a chancel to the east. Its exterior is Early English in style.

The front features stone steps leading to a studded plank door with a pointed head under a hoodmould. Above the door are three stepped lancet windows, and a single lancet window in each bay to either side. A statue of St George and the Dragon is housed in a niche in the gable. The south return has six lancets under a hoodmould; the shorter, easternmost one has a pointed-headed doorway below. Three stepped lancets are present in the chancel, with a single lancet in each bay to either side.

Inside, a western gallery and organ loft are enclosed by a panelled front supported on a gallery arcade of four-centred arches carried between slender, clustered columns. The high altar sits within a splayed recess with a crocketed hoodmould to a pointed head. Columns frame the reveals and support a soffit with ribbed panelling between. Life-size statues are set within crocketed gabled surrounds in niches flanking the altar; one depicts Ecce Homo, the other St George (inspired by Donatello). The roof structure includes five trusses with wooden brackets, corbels, a tie-beam, and pierced trefoil-headed arcade infill above. There is a cast-iron chancel rail with pierced trefoil-headed panels. An octagonal wooden pulpit is located to the left of the rail. An octagonal stone font is enclosed by a pierced wooden enclosure on the north side under the gallery. Matching small octagonal marble holy-water stoups, one dated 1836 and the other 1837, are positioned on wooden plinths either side of the entrance, signed by Sylvester Mooney. The church contains good late 19th/early 20th century stained glass, including some reused 17th-century (Flemish?) stained glass panels in the porch windows.