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Barton, Westmorland, St Michael

Location
(54°37′48″N, 2°47′46″W)
Barton
NY 487 264
pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales) Westmorland
now Cumbria
medieval Carlisle
now Carlisle
  • James King
  • James King
04 Aug 2015, 09 April 2017

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Description

The church was originally aisle-less with a central tower and eastern chancel. From this period survive the central tower and a section of the W Front. The N and S walls of the tower were built as external walls, but they are now located inside the church due to later additions. A plain Romanesque window on the S side of the tower remains intact. Both the E and W arches of the tower were modifed by creating lower, wider arches, but parts of the the earlier arches survive above these. A few reused, Romanesque carved stones appear elsewhere in the church. Modifications to the building date primarily from the 13thc. and 14thc., such as the side aisles, chancel and S chapel, although additional building work was also carried out in the post-Reformation period. Restorations were undertaken in the 17thc. and again in the 20thc.

History

Barton, which was part of the Barony of Kendal, was not included in Domesday Book. Early documents concerning the church are not forthcoming, the earliest reference apparently appearing in the first half of the 13thc. (see, for example, Ragg p. 438). Later in the 13thc., the church was given to Warter (or Wartre) Priory (Yorks.) by John de Lancaster, this confirmed by Pope Innocent IV (d. 1254). In the papal Taxatio Ecclesiastica of 1291-2, the church appears in association with Warter. Following this, in 1318, the appropiation of the church to Warter was confirmed by the bishop of Carlisle. The medieval dedication is somewhat uncertain, but seems to have been to either St Michael or All Saints.

Features

Exterior Features

Doorways

Windows

Exterior Decoration

Miscellaneous

Interior Features

Arches

Tower/Transept arches

Vaulting/Roof Supports

Chancel

Interior Decoration

Miscellaneous

Furnishings

Piscinae/Pillar Piscinae

Comments/Opinions

It is difficult to determine if the stone now used for the piscina basin has been re-cut at some later date for this purpose. The carved features along the E side of it are unusual, whatever the stone's original context. The association of prominantly carved features on a broad leaf capital also appears nearby at St Michael's Church, Lowther, along with a similar vertical motif between 2 of the leaves (2nd pier W of crossing).

Peter Ryder has suggested a possible early-12thc. date for the grave cover fragment built into the interior S wall of the S aisle.

Bibliography

F. Arnold-Forster, Studies in Church Dedications: or, England’s Patron Saints, vol. 3, London 1899, 43

J. Bacon, Liber Regis vel Thesaurus rerum Ecclesiasticarum (London, 1786), 1199.

J. Burton, Monasticon Eboracense: and the Ecclesiastical History of Yorkshire (York, 1758), 382.

W. Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, 6 pt 1 (London, 1846), 299.

C. Ferguson, 'Barton Church', Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, 4 (Kendal, 1880), 407-9.

T. Graham, 'The Medieval Diocese of Carlisle', Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, 2nd series: 25 (Kendal, 1925), 96 fn.

J. Martindale, 'Barton Church and Barton Kirke', Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, 2nd series: 22 (Kendal, 1922), 134-8.

J. Nicolson and R. Burn, The History and Antiquities of the the Counties of Westmorland and Cumberland, 1 (London, 1777), 400-5.

N. Pevsner, Cumberland and Westmorland (Harmondsworth, 1980), 224-5.

RCHME, An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Westmorland (London, 1936), 35-7.

F. Ragg, 'De Lancaster', The History and Antiquities of the the Counties of Westmorland and Cumberland, 2nd series, 10 (Kendal, 1910), 395-494.

P. Ryder, The Medieval Cross Slab Grave Covers in Cumbria, (Kendal, 2005), 134-6.

R. Storey, ed., The Register of John Kirkby Bishop of Carlisle 1332-1352 and the Register of John Ross Bishop of Carlisle, 1325-1332, 1 (London, 1993), 23, 40, 61, 71 and 166-7.

E. Venables, 'The Dedications of the Parochial Churches and Chapels of the Mordern Diocese of Carlisle', Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, 7 (Kendal, 1884), 118-49.

W. Whellan, The History and Topography of the Counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland (Pontefract, 1860), 778-9.