The Church is substantially a medieval building. Apart from the Anglian Cross ( see above) the oldest visible part of the structure is the south arcade of the nave of c.1180. The porch, south aisle and a reused window in the north (Levens) Chapel are fourteenth century. The Chancel, East Window, western half of the Dallam Chapel (south aisle) and most of the flat topped windows probably date from around 1459 when the Church’s financial arrangements with its patron St. Mary’s Abbey at York were reviewed. The North aisle, eastern part of the Dallam Chapel, the Levens Chapel and Clerestory (windows above the arches) are of c.1500.
The Fire of 1601 (see ‘records’ above) did not destroy all the fabric. From the pre-fire period dates the Fourteenth Century Parish Chest, the main south door of c.1300 and the Vestry Door of c. 1459. Other medieval fragments include a broken Holy Water Stoop in the Levens Chapel, the piscinas in the main sanctuary and in the Dallam Chapel, the gargoyles on the south wall, various head stops on the outside windows and a ram’s head in the South Aisle.
Fabric surviving from the post fire restoration includes most of the main roofs which are the Church’s most important architectural feature, most of the screen in the Levens Chapel and the Church Wardens Pew. From a little later belong two coffin stools, the main Chalice of c. 1650, a paten and wine flagons of c. 1683 and bench donated by Thomas Lockey in 1626. Thomas Lockey also gave a desk to the Church which was given to the Grammar School in c1970. After languishing in a bike shed it found its way to Kendal Museum which in 2001 appears to have lost it!
Apart from monuments there is little 18th century fabric in the Church except for the main Altar Table of c.1740 and a chest built around a 17th century altar table in the vestry. From the early nineteenth century date the pews under the tower which were originally in the eighteenth century gallery, the pulpit, the Vicar’s stall and a set of Gothic chairs.
Inside the Church showing Austin and Paley's North Arcade of
1869-70 on the left and the South Arcade of c.1180 on the right.
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The Church was restored twice in the nineteenth century. The major work was undertaken by the architects Austin and Paley in 1869-70. Their work includes the massive Tower (which replaced a 12th century Tower), the north arcade of the Nave, all the arches to the Chancel and the Chancel’s south aisle arcade, the window tracery in the south aisle, the east window of the Dallam Chapel, the western window of the north aisle which replaced a medieval doorway, the buttresses to the south nave wall and the crosses on the chancel and nave gables. The inner porch by Austin was erected to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. Other 19th century work includes the bells, the oak pews, the organ of c1858 and 1888 and later, the Alabaster Reredos (given by Mrs Harrison of Woodhouse when –after a 20 years courtship-her daughter married Canon Gilbert, vicar from 1866-1921), the Eagle Lectern, the choir stalls, the font, the tile and marble flooring to the chancel and sanctuary and the iron grills in the floor for the no longer used heating system. Some of the Altar hangings include Victorian embroidery.
The early twentieth century provided gas and then electric lighting, various forms of heating (all inadequate), the Font Cover by Hatch of Lancaster (which didn’t arrive on time for the consecration service!) the brass cross and candlesticks for the Altar and the Chancel carpet given as a memorial to the architect and distinguished historian J F Curwen in 1932. The Choir Vestry was installed and readapted as a children’s area in 2001. The Levens Chapel was adapted for a Lady Chapel in 1981 with light wood altar rails and table parodying the seventeenth century woodwork.
The Church's Chancel-showing East Window of c.1460 with stained glass of 1844.
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In the Dallam Chapel there are four stained glass panes bearing the coats of arms of the Buskells and other benefactors who restored the Church after the 1601 fire. Otherwise the Church’s stained glass windows all date from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They comprise the East Window by Warrington of 1844, the Baptistery window of 1857 probably by Burrow of Sandside, the Nave south windows of 1866-9 and the Dallam Chapel East Window of 1889 by Clayton and Bell, the west window of the North Aisle probably by Burrow of 1881, the Levens Chapel east window of 1914l by Shrigley and Hunt and the West Window under the Tower of 1924 by Archibald Nicholson of London.
There are no medieval monuments in the church although it is known that some of the tombs of the 14th century Wyndesores which were in the south aisle survived the 1601 fire. The oldest monument is also the best.
The Dorothy Bellingham Monument.
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It is to Dorothy Bellingham wife of the Squire of Levens, who
died in 1626.
Situated on the north side of the Levens Chapel arcade,
it shows the dead woman with her dead infant in swaddling clothes
lying in her arms.
The epitaph tells her story:
Other church Monuments include:
Mary, wife of Thomas Lord Preston. D. 1673, grave slab in Dallam Chapel.
Next to it is one to Mrs Dorothy Crowle d. 1716.
Over the Dallam Chapel door a plaque to Thomas Wilson of Heversham Hall d.1656.
In Children’s crèche N W. Corner: Rev Thomas Watson, plaque, d. 1753.
Dorothy Preston Mother of Bishop William Preston, d. 1767-wall monument with urn. Below tablet to the Bishop d. 1789.
In the South Aisle tablets to John Preston d.1816, Rev James Backhouse d.1790, Richard Crampton of Howlett Ash d.1797, Rev Henry Wilson d. 1797 and to John and Issac Hudson drowned bathing 1792.
In the baptistery is a brass plaque to Mr Wm Jonson d. 1713 and his progeny of Old Hall, Endmoor in Preston Patrick.
In the Chancel are marble plaques to Rev William Fisher Audland d. 1853, to James Smyth Vicar of Heversham d. 1757, to Rev. Alan Chambers d. 1800, to Joseph Fayrer (slave trader) d. Cape Coast Castle 1810 and his son Edward lost when HMS Defence was sunk in the Baltic Sea in 1811, to Rev Dr Lawson Vicar of Heversham d. 1842, to Archdeacon Evans also Vicar of Heversham d.1866 and to Richard Birkett d.1829.
The Churchyard from the north c.1920.
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There are over 650 monuments.
A select few are:
William Docker d. 1766.
By the main door lies William Whalley ‘late of Accrington in the County Palatine of Lancaster d. 1786’:
By the gate on to The Head. Jane Swindlehurst who - with her husband Henry - in 1855 sailed round Cape Horn with three children and after visiting the coasts of Peru returned in 1859 with five children ..to Hincaster House ..where ..in 1883 'the Lord took her unto his own’.
Under the beech tree east of the church lies Rev Dr Lawson whose epitaph beginning ‘inter arbores…’ refers to his planting the beech and also the two chestnut trees by the main gate.
The Lych Gate was erected to the memory of Dr John Audland who ‘died on the eve of the feast of the purification 1892’.
Close by lies Esther Derome d.1866.
Her final plight is outlined:
‘It was on the eve of leaving
This native home of mine
To join a loving son
In a far distant clime
But by death was over taken
My race of life was run,
It was God’s will that I should go,
So Farewell, Farewell, Dear Son.’
This was designed by J F Curwen in the form of an Anglian Cross.
The First World War ‘fallen’ inscribed are:
G. A. Wilson, J. Hamilton, T. Philipson, H.V. Shaw, J. E. Woof, J. Chamley, R. Smith, J. Atkinson, W.H. Ward, F. Baines, G.H. Proctor, E. Proctor, J. Proctor, J. Sisson, J.Moore, T. Dowker, J.B. Germaine.
From The Second World War are:
J (Jean) Strickland, J (Jean) Binnie, W. N. Smith and W. G. Sisson.