Finsthwaite Church and School

In the Heart of the Village

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The original Finsthwaite church of St Peter was built in 1724 as a chapel of ease within Colton parish but was replaced by this larger one in 1874. It was paid for by Thomas Newby Wilson of Newby Bridge, the proprietor of the Stott Park Bobbin Mill. The church provided seating for 200 people.
The architects were Paley and Austin who won a competition for a mountain chapel and you can see why, as the church appears as if hewn from the rock. The oversized buttresses and massive tower, with its tall pyramidal roof, ensure this building is rooted firmly in the landscape.

The church is constructed in coursed stone rubble with sandstone dressings. It has a slate roof and tiles on the ridges. Its architectural style is late Norman. The plan consists of a four-bay nave, a north porch and a chancel. Between the nave and chancel is a tower. To the north of the tower is an organ chamber and a vestry.

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Within the interior, the ceiling is painted with scrollwork, and with angels carrying copies of the Beatitudes. Around the nave and window arches are a stencilled frieze, part of which has been covered with whitewash. The rest of the furnishings were designed by the architects. These include the altar rails, the chancel floor, the pulpit, the lectern, and the font, which is made from fossiliferous marble. The church has many stained glass windows, including the East Window of Christ and the Apostles by Henry Holiday. Other windows are by Powell of Whitefriars, and Shrigley and Hunt.

Overall, there is a certain eccentricity in the design which is, perhaps, reflected today in the churchyard with its grazing sheep!

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In the churchyard stands a gravestone commemorating the 'Cumbrian Princess', Clementina Johannes Sobieski Douglas. Clementina, who died at the age of 24, was buried at the southern side of St. Peter's churchyard on 16th May, 1771. She was reputed, according to some sources, to be the illegitimate daughter of the Jacobite 'Young Pretender' Bonnie Prince Charlie (1720-1788) by his mistress, Clementina Walkinshaw. Clementina was purported to have been sent to Finsthwaite as a child to live a secluded life. Sobieski was the surname of Prince Charles mother, while Douglas was a surname he himself was known to sometimes use.

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A school was built at the same time, immediately behind the church. It is now the village hall. There is also a small, tiled building in the back yard, called the Peat Hut, which stored locally cut peat that was burned to heat the school. The school shut in late 1960s when it only had a dozen pupils. The photo on the right , taken in about 1905, shows it with about 80 children and their headteacher Mr Mitchell, a pupil teacher Walter Brockbank, and the infant teacher Miss Redhead.

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Rusland Horizons Rusland Horizons Trust. Registered Office: Pipistrel House, Finsthwaite Lane, Backbarrow, Ulverston, Cumbria, LA12 8QD. Tel: 07908 986795 Email: hello@ruslandhorizonstrust.org

Rusland Horizons was a Landscape Partnership funded by the National Heritage Lottery Fund until July 2019. It is now being delivered by The Rusland Horizons Trust Limited. Company No. 2133450; Charity No. 519410; Registered Office: Pipistrel House, Finsthwaite Lane, Backbarrow, Ulverston, Cumbria, LA12 8QD.

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Finsthwaite Church and School

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