St. Mary's at Wreay

also Bronze Plaque commemorating the Hindsons who built it.

"Wreay us a little village 5 miles south of Carlisle. It consists of a church, a school. a Personage, a Post Office with general shop, a smithy, the "Plough Inn" and 4 cottages, all surrounding a village green of about 2 acres in extent". This is the opening sentence in the Vicar of Wreay, John Hall's book entitled "Wreay" written in 1929.  In 1984 Wreay (pron. "REAR") looked the same as the Reverend Hall described.

All of Wreay's parish is within the limits of Inglewood Forest. In 1869 parts of adjacent parishes, including part of the Parish of Heskett-in-the-Forest were added to the ecclesiastical parish of Wreay, including Mellguards, Howfield, and Hackinbag.

The Lords of the Manor at Wreay were the Losh family in the early and mid 1800's. On the death of John Losh, who owned chemical works near Newcastle, Sarah Losh, his daughter, inherited the Woodside Estates and the Walter Alkali Works in 1814.  Sarah Losh became the benefactress of Wreay, and particularly St. Mary's at Wreay. She and her sister, Katherine, lived at Woodside, not far from Wreay, until their death. Neither married and they became very close.

Quoting from Miss Losh's own notes: " In 1840 the old chapel at Wreay was found to be in very dilapidated condition". After deciding that it was not worth repair, Miss Losh entered into an agreement that she would supply the land for the new Chapel and defray all expenses of it's erection on condition that she should be left unrestricted as to the mode of building it.   Some of her relatives also contributed.

"The Church of St Mary's is a highly original work of architecture - the product of the exuberant imagination of Miss Sarah Losh (1785-1853) who designed and built the Church in 1840-1842 as a memorial to her beloved sister Catherine and to her parents.

The Church is in the shape of a Roman basilica, a rectangular building with an apse. The apse is surrounded by 14 pillars, the spaces between forming 13 seats. Above them are the emblems of the 12 apostles, with Christ in the centre. Above these are decorations on the wall, round the 'fossil' windows, of lilies and passion flowers.

It has many French and Italian features. One of the recurring themes is the conflict between life and death, light and darkness. There are acorns and pine cones everywhere. There are 84 windows, with little fossil windows in the apse, and archangels to the north and south of the arch. The lecterns are carved in chestnut, with an eagle and a pelican both on pillars of bog oak.

Outside there are gargoyles, a well, sundial, mausoleum, and a replica of the Bewcastle Cross

Miss Losh sent William to Italy to study Italian Architecture and to have instruction in stone carving.  Later she would sketch or model ornaments and he would respond to them in stone.

Anyone who has seen Agricola's Bascilica in Rome and then seen St. Mary's would have little difficulty accepting that one was the model of the other. William Hindson knew that a basilica type building was well within the competence of his father and him to build.

This is a church to see even if your ancestors did not build it. Stone carvings abound, water lilies and leaves, cone terminals, chrysalis, butterflies, garlands of poppy-heads and wheat, with lilies on top.  Various forms of life connected to the sea, to the air, and to the earth; a raven, an owl cockchafer, a bee, and branches of fir trees above bearing cones. (Miss Losh liked cones).

St. Peter and St. Paul are there with an eagle above the bell turret. Projecting from the eaves are grotesque reptilian figures, their ugly shapes symbolizing the flight of evil things from the church.  One of these figures, the crocodile, once served another purpose.  From his mouth smoke once belched coming from the original heating system of the building.  Much more could be said about the interesting church -- After all the Rev. Hall wrote a book about it.

Mary Hindson, well into her nineties, (in 1988) who lives not far from Wreay, told an old family story about the church.  Apparently William put his name on the font just outside the church to show that he had built it.  Miss Losh did not like this and had it covered up.

The construction of St. Mary's began in 1840 and the church was consecrated on December 1, 1842 by Bishop Percy.   Miss Losh has become a legend and her picture, as large as life, hangs in the church.

The mausoleum was built by the Hindsons, with William doing the stone carving (note the figures over the door are said to be taken from ancient ruins from Cornwall). William could also have done some of the commemorative stonework inside the mausoleum including the Wreay Cross. There is little doubt that he did Katherine Well, and perhaps St. Ninian's Well, as well as other stonework around and in Woodside.  He lived at Briscoe Hall for some time (John Hindson, later of Erie, was born there is 1834) evidence that he did work for Miss Losh long before St. Mary's was built.

When her sister died in 1835, Sarah had erected numerous monuments to Katherine, such as well troughs at Roughton Ghyll, a stone canopy at "Katherine Well", a marble statue which she placed in the mausoleum adjoining the Wreay churchyard. On the interior walls of the mausoleum, she placed other memorials to her family, including a stone that was in most respects a copy of the famous Saxon Cross of Bewcastle, the earliest and finest of the Pre-Norman monuments in Cumberland (AD 671). With few exceptions, the Wreay cross is an exact copy of the cross at Bewcastle (See A.R. Hall, Wreay, pages 57&58 for further details).

-  Ralph D. Hindson of Ottawa, Canada (1988)