Cockermouth Info

DISTINGTON

Where St Cuthbert Stood

It has one long street in a countryside of coal and iron, but it is redeemed by its place between the sea and the Lakeland mountains, and by its fine 19th-century church above the village.

Built in 13th-century style, it has a fine chancel arch, splendid lancets. and lovely arcades with shining granite pillars whose capitals have foliage. The oak: altar has four angels under canopies; the low chancel screen is of wrought iron with the signs of the twelve disciples on brass shields; and the oak pulpit is richly carved. with scenes of the Baptism of Our Lord, His preaching in a boat by the sea, Peter sinking. the c:a.lming of the stOll1l, and the miraculous draught of fishes.

It is thought that this church stands on one of the places where St Cuthbert stood preaching 1300 years ago, and that it is the fourth shrine to be raised on the site. The first would be a wooden structure built by the early converts, and it is thrilling to think that the parts of the broken Saxon cross now treasured here may have stood beside it. They are crudely carved, one piece having a three-legged cross. The second church was a Norman one which lasted until the 17th century, and some of the things it treasured are still to be seen. There are ancient gravestones, a piscina found in the rectory garden, an Elizabethan silver chalice, two bells known to have been here before 1552, and fragments of stones, one carved with a monk’s head. A similar stone is in one of the farm walls at Hayes Castle, the ruined home of the old lords of Distington. and other ancient stones are in old houses in the village.

Of the third church. built in the 17th century, there is one relic in the chancel arch standing solitary in the churchyard. Another is the font of 1662 now in the Mission Church two miles away at Pica. It was in this third church that Henry Lowther was rector for no less than 63 years last century. His only memorial is the memory of his good works, especially what he did for the Sunday school here, which has a little fame all its own. It was started before his day, as long ago as 1787, and was one of the earliest in all England, in one of our remotest villages. Robert Raikes had started a few years before at Gloucester.

Two miles away at Gilgarran we saw in a farm wall by the roadside a stone to a 17th-century man said to have been buried in his own orchard. The inscription tells us that, having cast his trade from port to port, he at last reached the haven.