The Diocese of Carlisle

For Tourists

Overview

The visitor to Cumbria must not expect to find the large and stately parish churches of, say, East Anglia or Wessex. More typical of this area are the little friendly whitewashed churches of the dales, built late in the middle ages or in the seventeenth century, as plain and straightforward as the men who made them.

Few buildings survive from before the Norman Conquest, although there are many interesting pieces of Anglo-Saxon and Viking age sculpture including two of the finest crosses in England, at Bewcastle and Gosforth. However, it is a great area of Norman churches; time and again you will find the heavy pillars and rounded arches typical of the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Due to the wars with Scotland which began in 1297 there was little cash to spare for church building in the Decorated and Perpendicular styles, although there are glorious exceptions in
Carlisle Cathedral and Cartmel Priory. Eighteenth century prosperity gave the towns some fine new churches, as at Whitehaven, Workington and Penrith. Cumbria did not escape the Victorian passion for church rebuilding -indeed the poverty of earlier years meant there was essential work for the Victorians to do.

The primary function of all churches, whether pre- Norman or present day, is as a place of worship; and it is hoped that visitors will spare some time from admiring the structure of the buildings to join the local congregations at their services.

This website offers a number of different church trails for you to download. Trails are cycle friendly as well as for car drivers. Chuch Trails were written some years ago and Appleby Deanery Trails were written 2003/04.