St Mary and St Michael's Church, Great Urswick

St Mary and St Michael’s Church stands in the quiet village of Great Urswick in Cumbria. Built of local stone with a slate roof, it has a four-bay nave, a south porch, a chancel with a north vestry, and a wide west tower. The tower’s thick walls contain a stair and finish in an embattled parapet above a pointed west door. A niche above the door holds a Pietà sculpture beneath a three-light Perpendicular window. The churchyard holds a 1729 sundial and a Grade II Gale family monument. The church is worth visiting for its layered history. Parts of the tower and chancel date from the 13th century, while the nave and vestry belong to the 14th. A west gallery was added in 1828, and in 1911 plaster was stripped to reveal the 9th-century Tunwinni Cross with runes. The interior fittings include choir stalls carved by Alec Miller in the 1910s, a three-decker pulpit from the 18th century, and a medieval font shaped like an egg-cup. Six bells hang in the tower, the oldest from about 1460. Inside, the rood screen shows saints and carries a plain cross, and the reredos is flanked by carved figures of the Virgin Mary and Saint Michael. Two chancel windows contain medieval glass fragments, and the Gale Pew is richly carved with putti and flowers. The Wilkinson organ of about 1910 and the ring of bells complete the scene. The church remains an active parish church and a Grade I listed building.