St Mary's Church, Walton

St Mary’s Church stands in the quiet village of Walton in Cumbria, a red sandstone building on a low ashlar plinth. The present church was raised in 1869–70 on the foundations of a medieval predecessor rebuilt in 1811 and enlarged again in 1843. Lancaster architects Paley and Austin designed the new structure, completing it for about £2,000. A north aisle and a three-bay chancel extend from the four-bay nave, while a tower with a porch rises at the northwest corner. The tower carries a small pyramidal roof and louvred openings in Early English style. Inside, the pews and furnishings belong to the 19th or early 20th century. The font’s base holds a fragment of a cross carved in the 10th or 11th century. Marble memorial plaques from the earlier church line the walls, and the reredos of 1899 is a mosaic set in alabaster. William Wailes glazed the east window in 1869, and Heaton, Butler and Bayne added a north aisle window around 1912. A single-manual organ, possibly by Samuel Renn of Manchester, occupies the west end. Outside, the churchyard contains an early 19th-century hearse house of calciferous sandstone under a slate roof. The round-arched window in its wall may have been reused from the 1813 church. The building is surrounded by gravestones and mature trees, giving a peaceful setting beside the village.