Lancashire Churches - Flookburgh

Lancashire

Churches

A large and powerful Austin & Paley church of 1897-1900

Flookburgh (Flokeburg) is first mentioned in 1246. The name probably derives from the flat fish, known locally as flukes, though it may possibly come from an Old Norse personal name (Floki). Whatever the origin, the fishing village probably began life as a Norse settlement which increased its importance following the foundation of Furness Abbey in 1127, when it would have been a useful halt on the route across the Sands from Hest Bank.

The village was granted a charter by Charles II in 1663. This renewed the authority, first granted in 1412, to hold a market on the three days centred on the feast day of St John the Baptist (24th June), and also on Michaelmas Day.

Little is known of the early church in Flookburgh, but it is likely to have been a chapel of ease of Cartmel Priory, and may have been established in the C13. The first chapel for which evidence exists was in Flookburgh Square, and is noted in 1723 as having no font, communion table or surplice! In 1776 it was taken down and replaced by a new building costing £596 11s 2½d. The present church has a stone tablet recording the cost, as well as the Royal Arms, boards with the Creed and Lord's Prayer, and some memorials from this chapel.

In 1879 Flookburgh became a parish in its own right, and it was decided to build a new church. Money for the building was provided by Victor Cavendish MP of Holker Hall (later the Duke of Devonshire). Austin and Paley were the chosen architects, and in St John the Baptist, built between 1897 and 1900, they produced a powerful, inventive design.

The style of the stone-built church is essentially Romanesque, with lancet windows suggesting the Early English, so if we were to date the period on which it is based we would look at c.1190-1200.

At the west end is a low and massive tower, with shallow buttresses, lancet bell openings, corbel table, and a saddleback roof with gables east and west decorated with fish-scale moulding. The weathervane is a fish (a fluke?). For another fishy weathervane see Austin & Paley's Dolphinholme, also of 1897. The central south buttress of the tower has a lancet window in it - an unusual arrangement. Attached to the tower is a south porch with a pedimental gable end decorated with two circles containing pommée crosses.

The nave has aisles to east and west with paired lancets alternating with singles, all under hoodmoulds. At the east and west ends of the nave are tall round-headed lancets that almost span the aisle and clerestory window levels - again, an unusual device. The clerestory has single lancets except at the eastern ends where there are large quatrefoils. The south elevation has a short transept that holds the organ.

The east end of the church is apsidal, and, owing to the sloping site, this incorporates an undercroft. It has full-height buttresses and single lancets, those of the undercroft placed in rounded arches. It is illuminating to compare this apse with that of Lancaster, Scotforth, St Paul (1874-6), by Edmund Sharpe, a former partner in the Austin & Paley practice. The north side of the church is more simply treated, but nonetheless, the view from the south eastern entrance is one of complex interlocking masses. The whole is successfully visually bound together by the string courses and the roof lines.

The nave has three bays, with a further bay beyond the chancel arch and before the arch to the apse. The columns are both circular and compound, with quite plain capitals. At the west end of the nave is a broad, low tower arch that frames the twin lancet west windows, and makes a satisfying composition. The font is placed in the pool of light below the tower. The east end of the church is raised, and darker, with light coming from the high lancets.

The pulpit is of stone, below the south side of the chancel arch. It has detached polished corner columns that become supporting legs. The front is decorated with twin pommée crosses like those on the south porch. The font is a circular bowl with chevron supported on a broad central stem and six detached columns. Waterleaf detailing on the base suggests the Early English period.

The stained glass of St John includes good pieces by Shrigley & Hunt. At the west end a window commemorates Lord Frederick Cavendish, Chief Secretary for Ireland. He was assassinated in Phoenix Park, Dublin, in 1882.

South elevation

The style is broadly Romanesque with elements of Early English.

Apse

The apse continues the Romanesque theme, and stands on an undercroft.

Nave looking east

The east end of the church has both chancel arch and an apse arch.

Font

An historically correct piece that shows the character of fonts of c.1190.

St Aidan and St Oswald

Characteristically well-drawn and richly but subtly coloured Shrigley and Hunt glass.