Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria

Kirkby Stephen on Wikipedia.
 

The Baptist Church on Nateby Road. NY 7756 0845. © Steve Bulman (2006). Link.

The former Congregational Chapel, later Holy Family (R.C.). NY 7749 0860. © Steve Bulman (2006). By 2019 or 2020 (news story, advised of by Kevin Price) it had become home to Evangelical Church, the congregation of which moved here from the Gospel Hall (for which see below). © Howard Richter (2025). Kevin Price advises that the Congregational Chapel closed in 1965, and was used by Roman Catholics until relatively recently. The building is now in secular use. Judy Flynn has advised that a Catholic Directory of 1963 lists The Holy Family, Market Street (1946). This is puzzling - it can't be the date they took over the old chapel, as this contradicts the Congregational closing date above. Possibly the congregation formed in 1946 and met elsewhere for some years? A later directory (2005) doesn't list Holy Family, so it must have closed by then. Howard Richter has been looking into this Congregational question. In the book Church Planting - A Study of Westmorland Nonconformity by Alan P. F. Sell, it states that the Congregational church opened in 1865, and that it closed circa 1945 - this from the fact that it is last mentioned in the Congregational Year Book for 1945. This is consistent with the Catholics taking over the church in 1946. Margaret Green agrees. Her grandfather, the Rev. William Henry Skinner, was minister here from November 1943 until November 1945, when he had to retire due to ill health. She has also consulted some papers in the Kendal Archive, which confirm that the church was closed soon after his retirement, and this is consistent with the Catholics taking over in late 1945 or 1946.

A Double Mortuary Chapel stands in the cemetery to the north of the town at NY 7733 0928. The leftmost (southern) chapel is Church of England, the other Nonconformist. © Philip Kapp. Two further views- 1, 2, both © Dennis Harper (2012).

Gospel Hall on Mellbecks. NY 7763 0867. © Philip Kapp. The congregation has now moved into the former Congregational Chapel (see above) and re-named itself as Evangelical Church. The Gospel Hall has been much altered and converted to residential use - 2024 Streetview.

Centenary Methodist Church on Victoria Square. It has a date-stone for 1839, as Wesleyan. NY 7751 0844. © Steve Bulman (2006). Link.

Friends Meeting House off High Street. NY 775 084. © Howard Richter (2011). Link.

An old Hearse House stands at NY 775 089. The door has fine hand-made iron fittings. Both © Martin Richter (2011).

Former Primitive Methodist Chapel (1865), now in use as a Masonic Hall. Another view. Howard's examinations of old maps indicates that this building was used as a Sunday School after its successor was built in 1902. NY 775 089. Both © Howard Richter (2011).  Link. The former Primitive Methodist Chapel on Market Street is dated 1902. NY 7749 0854. © Steve Bulman (2006). Another view, © Alan Blacklock. Link. In 2006, the Cumberland News, (20 Oct. 2006) reported that the former P.M. chapel, then in use as a Youth Hostel, had recently been sold off. However, Kevin Price advised in 2010 that it is still a YHA property. Kevin also advises that the P.M. Chapel was properly the Fletcher Hill Methodist Chapel, and it closed in the 1970's when the congregation combined with Centenary Methodist Church.

St. Stephen (Anglican and R.C.). A fine imposing church. NY 7752 0882. © Steve Bulman (2006). Stephen Walker has contacted me to advise that the latest scholarship is that the correct dedication may be St. John. St. Stephen may have become attached to the church, either because the church was given to Stephen, Abbot of St. Mary in York, or from stevven (which corresponds with the local pronunciation of St. Stephen), an Anglian or Danish word for "moor". Whether this is correct, most sources still refer to it as St. Stephen, though it's interesting to note that the CoE website - http://www.achurchnearyou.com/ - lists it as Kirkby Stephen Parish Church. The church information board at one point said St. Stephen or St. John, but by 2012 it just said Kirby Stephen Parish Church, without mentioning a dedication. Another view, and two interior views - 1, 2, altar, 17th century font, and the Victorian font, all © Dennis Harper (2012). Grade II* listed. The unusual southern entrance to the churchyard has The Cloisters (2024Streetview, grade II listed of 1810.

The Salvation Army are known to have met in the Temperance Hall (1856) on Victoria Square. NY 7755 0851. © Salvation Army Philatelic and Historical Society (SAPHA), which has a reference to an officer leaving the corps in 1928. Grade II listed.

The former Sandemanian Chapel off High Street. Another view. NY 7755 0867. Both © Martin Richter (2011). The Sandemanians no longer exist - they were secessionists from the Scottish Presbyterians. More on them here. See also the Wikipedia article on Kirkby Stephen - link near the top of this page.