Last updated at 14:32, Tuesday, 27 January 2009

In the first of a new series on Cumbria's special churches, Mary Ingham visits the pre-Raphaelite jewel of St Martin's in Brampton, near Carlisle

St Martins

On a grey winter’s afternoon, the daylight is fading fast in Brampton and it’s already quite dark in St Martin’s. But the rich colours of the stained glass windows are still vibrant, St George’s gold and rose armour blazing out from
the magnificent east window into the shadowy chancel.
“The east window caused concern originally,” says Brampton’s team rector, the Reverend Averyl Bradbrook. “It was made at a time when people thought churches should be solemn. Now everyone thinks what a glorious window.”
People visit St Martin’s from all over the world to see Philip Webb’s unusual architecture and marvel at the windows, which were designed by Edward Burne-Jones and crafted by William Morris and his company.
Brampton’s first church was a mile and a half away on the site of a Roman fort close to a number of settlements forming the earlier Brampton. By the mid-18th century, most services were held in an almshouse chapel near the present town centre. The chapel was rebuilt as a new church, consecrated in 1789, and only the chancel of the Old Church kept for funerals – and still to be seen today.
In 1874, after Henry Whitehead had become vicar, a public meeting decided to replace the Georgian church because it was in a bad state of repair and its appropriated pews left little room for poorer people
to worship.
The Howard family backed the project generously and George Howard, who later became the 9th Earl of Carlisle, proposed Webb as architect. George Howard was a talented artist, a friend of Pre-Raphaelites such as Burne-Jones and Morris, and a patron of Webb, who built two houses for the Howards’ Naworth estate.
St Martin’s, which is Grade I listed, couldn’t be more different from the Gothic revival churches built in the Victorian era in which priest and congregation were separated. The body of the church is almost square and its interior very open.
“There’s no separate pulpit and no screen between sanctuary and nave,” says Evelyn Alexander, a member of the parochial church council. “It’s the only church built to a design of Philip Webb’s. He aimed for it to be light and airy and for everyone to be visible to whoever was leading the service.”
Church warden Leonard James understands that Webb was so particular about every detail that he indicated where each 6in nail should go.
“The church ran out of money for the tower, which was added in 1904 and designed by another architect,” says Leonard.
Otherwise, says Evelyn, the church is pretty much unchanged since it was consecrated in 1878, apart from the side chapel created in 1920 as a war memorial.

The remarkable windows in St Martin’s commemorate local people, hence Moses with the tablets of the law appears in the window dedicated to lawyer William Carrick.
The east window is in memory of George Howard’s father Charles, who was chairman of the church building committee and a much loved local MP. Burne-Jones was paid £200 for designing the east window, which is regarded by architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as a key departure point for Art Nouveau. Nine of the original designs for the east window are in Tullie House’s collection in Carlisle.
“You can imagine people’s reaction
on a sunny summer morning when the
whole east window is lit up,” says Evelyn. “It’s spectacular.”
In his account book, Burne-Jones makes a tongue-in-cheek complaint: “To Brampton Window – a colossal work of fifteen subjects – a master-piece of style, a chef d’oeuvre of invention, a capo d’opera of conception, fifteen compartments – a Herculean labour – hastily estimated in a moment of generous friendship for £200, if the firm regards as binding a contract made from a noble impulse, and in a mercenary spirit declines to reopen the question, it must remain – but it will remain equally a monument of art and ingratitude – £200.”
Finance remains a concern. “Looking
after St Martin’s is borne mostly by the people who worship here,” says Averyl. “It’s a growing problem for the smaller rural churches in Cumbria.”
St Martin’s is indisputably “a pre-Raphaelite jewel”, says Averyl. “But it’s
a living church, not a museum, and serves the present community.
“The church is open during the week and has an outward focus. It’s very much seen as Brampton’s church.”
Many activities take place in the church and an adjacent building, The Cottage, to welcome people of all ages and they include the Night Lights youth programme run by the Reverend Edward Johnsen. The organ has just been refurbished and recitals bring in people who aren’t necessarily aware how lovely the windows are. Ministers who have served in St Martin’s include broadcaster Anna Ford’s father, John Ford, in the Sixties and Arthur Penn, who was Vicar of Brampton from 1967 to 1983.
The latter was responsible for the fascinating pamphlets about the church and a book, Brampton Church and its Windows, which has just been republished as St Martin’s – The Making of a Masterpiece by Arthur’s son David Penn, an artist and writer from Staveley, near Kendal. Designed by Mullin Design, Kendal, the book has colour photography of the main windows by Sonia Halliday and photographs of St Martin’s by Martin Charles.
Sadly Arthur Penn died in February 2008. He’d completed revisions of the text but did not see the book in its full colour glory.
David says the text of the earlier edition was well respected but the pictures were black and white and there were none of the windows. A couple of years ago stocks of the old book ran out and an update was suggested. “Dad’s interest in stained glass began when he was at university,” says David. “He had trained as a librarian and was fascinated by facts. He was also very good at picking people’s brains.”
Profits from the sale of the book will go to the conservation of the glass and fabric of
the church.

 St Martin’s The Making of a Masterpiece, by Arthur Penn, published by David Penn, £12.50, is available at local outlets and from www.millyardstudios.co.uk.
For further information on Sonia Halliday Photographs, world specialists in stained glass, history and religion, see www.soniahalliday.com.

First published at 12:15, Monday, 26 January 2009
Published by http://www.cumbrialife.co.uk