Holy Trinity, Wetheral History
Wetheral is one of only two churches in England to be dedicated to St. Constantine; the other is in Cornwall. The cells of this mysterious hermit are to be found a short distance south above the river. This dedication is much more common in Scotland of which Wetheral was part a thousand years ago, from 945-1072 and occasionally subsequently. Constantine is thought to have been martyred near Whithorn, the ancient Christian site in Galloway, less than 100 miles away.
After the Dark Ages, the Normans founded a Benedictine monastery, Wetheral Priory, a daughter house to St. Mary’s Abbey, close to York Minster. That Abbey is a ruin and all that remains of the Priory is the Gatehouse which dates back 900 years and was restored by English Heritage. Access is free and it commands fine views over the river Eden. The church today dates largely from the dissolution of the monasteries when Wetheral fell to the patronage of Carlisle Cathedral, which had previously been an Augustinian monastery.
The architecturally significant addition of a memorial chapel to the Howard family of Corby Castle came in the late C18th. It houses the finest marble statue in Cumbria, ‘Faith’ by Joseph Nollekens. At his death this was regarded as his greatest work. Above his tomb in Paddington, London, he is shown in bas relief working on this statue, the miniature of which is to be seen in the main sculpture of the Victoria and Albert Museum. It is a memorial to the wife of Henry Howard, Maria, who died in childbirth. William Wordsworth visited Wetheral and wrote a poem about this statue. The chapel also contains some of the earliest cast iron windows in the country.
Wetheral Parish Church displays some of the little remaining medieval stained glass in Cumbria. The west windows are thought to depict St. Constantine and the Virgin Mary. Mary’s name was amongst the church's dedications before the Reformation. The most recent major addition was the pipe organ installed in 1984 by Richard Bower of Norfolk.
