St Cuthbert - Kentmere

Parson & White Trade Directory, 1829, p. 651:

The Chapel stands near the hall and lake, and had a burial ground consecrated in 1701. The curate's ancient salary is £6 a year, paid by the land-owners, who are the patrons, but the living was augmented before 1757, with £600, viz. £400 obtained from Queen Anne's bounty, £100 given by inhabitants, and £100 by the executors of Dr. STRATFORD. Of this money, £200 was laid out in the purchase of the Bonnel-Head estate, in Patton. Dr. AIREY bequeathed 40 shillings yearly for a monthly sermon, and, as well as that still more eminent and pious divine, Bernard GILPIN, was a native of Kentmere, where the family of Gilpin was long seated and had a considerable estate. The Rev. John GRISENTHWAITE is the curate and master of the chapel school, which is not endowed. The manor has been sold to the landowners.

The church of St. Cuthbert is a very plain but ancient building of rough cobble stone, probably of the 11th century, consisting of nave, south porch and a western tower with gabled roof and containing one bell; the walls of the nave are about five feet in thickness and of exceptional strength; the windows on the north and south sides comprise four sets of small triplets, placed high up in the wall and deeply splayed internally; the church was restored in 1866 at a cost of about £250, raised by public subscriptions, and the tower was rebuilt at the sole expense of the late Admiral WILSON, of The How, Windermere, who was also one of the chief contributors to the restoration fund; there are 160 sittings. The register dates from the year 1701. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £285, with residence, in the gift of the vicar of Kendal, and held since 1933 by the Rev. John Owen HOLT, B.A. of University of Liverpool. Newton's charity and the poor's stock consist unitedly of £206 in Consols, held by official trustees; the income, amounting to about £6 a year, is applied to educational purposes.

Trans. of the Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society, Vol. XXXIV, New Series, 1934, page 195:

Dealing with the theories as to the Norman origin of this building, Mr. McIntire stated that the earliest mention he could find of the church was in a deed of 1453, relative to the neighbouring Brockstone farm. It was then a chapel under Kendal. The thickness of its walls might give some support to the tradition that it had once been a fortified church. He mentioned some of the benefactors of the church, amongst whom were the AIREYs, a family connected with Kentmere from the 14th century onwards. The particular benefactor was John AIREY, the nephew of Bernard GILPIN, "the Apostle of the North." He pointed out a tablet to the memory of Bernard Gilpin, erected as the outcome of a suggestion by the late Canon Rawnsley upon the occasion of the Society's last visit to Kentmere in 1913. He concluded by expressing the Society's thanks to the Vicar, Mr. MASON, for his permission to use the church.

Cumbrian Villages by Kenneth Smith, 1973:

The plain, cement-surfaced church of St. Cuthbert has 16th century roof-beams, but was restored in 1866 and again renovated in 1950. The original oil lamps hang from the wooden ceiling, but have electric bulbs inside them. There is no stained glass. The long altar, with its rather crudely painted front, has two almost fairground kneeling angels guarding it -- one on each side. The bronze memorial tablet to Bernard GILPIN (1517-83), "the Apostle of the North", was made by the Keswick School of Industrial Arts in 1901.

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