Matterdale Church

The chapel is a simple rectangular building of cobbles with lime mortar facing. In the north wall, the extent of the original building is visible, it having been the same width, but shorter. It is not known when the church was lengthened. Massive oak beams can be seen in the interior. One has a date MdXXxxxxxIII inscribed with some initials. There is some dispute as to whether this refers to the date of building being 1573, or 1753 when alterations were made, the carpenter using capital Xs to denote hundreds. This seems unlikely, so the beams may well be original.

A priest’s door in the south wall has been blocked up. A stone with an inscription has been inserted in the wall here. It dates from 1686, but was found in the churchyard in 1848. It has carved the initials I.W. (thought to be John Wilkinson) Church Warden and C.S. Forman Mason (initials unknown).

In the 1750s, the church was replastered and the interior flagged and seating renewed. In 1848, the tower was added to a house a bell, the roof was slated and a musician’s gallery was added. Then in 1881, the raised sanctuary step was added and the seat around the altar for the choir. The seventeenth century triple-decker pulpit was altered to form the current one. The large seat to the right of the inner door was a coffin rest.

The stained glass window above the altar depicts the nativity and is late 19th century.

Until the late 19th century, most of the seats were appropriated, that is they were assigned to particular residents in the valley. The Religious Census of 1851 records that there were only 20 “free” sittings. A seating plan exists (see photo) which is undated, but 19th century. It assigns some pews to a person by name and others to a named house. Appropriated seats were criticised in Victorian Britain for making the Church inaccessible and the practice was gradually abandoned.