Brathay Church

Holy Trinity at Brathay is possibly the most northern church of historical Lancashire, being just a hundred yards or so from the River Brathay, which once served as the county boundary. Unusually, it is built in a rather exotic, Italianate style, enhanced I think by the deep blue sky which provided its background on that crisp January morning on which we called. Sadly, no one had thought it appropriate to unlock the door, so it was only externals and graveyard we were permitted to view. I noted that some of the windows, high up, were kept open, to reduce the damp no doubt, which is likely worsened by keeping shut the doors. Nevertheless, the whole is rather pleasing, and it was William Wordsworth himself, that ubiquitous bard of Lakeland, who pronounced in 1836 ‘there is no situation out of the Alps, nor among them, more beautiful than that where this building is placed.’

He visited the Alps in 1790, whereas I have never been, though I am still a little surprised by his claim, attractive though it is. Holy Trinity is a ‘Prayer Book’ church, which means it employs the forms laid down in the 1662 Anglican Book of Common Prayer. Although its required usage upset many puritans and inclined them towards nonconformity, it remains a beautiful liturgy, and its contemporary usage indicates a theological orthodoxy which many Church of England parishes and clergy have long abandoned. I cannot say that Brathay rivals the Alps in beauty, but if here the timeless gospel and reformed theology of Archbishop Cranmer is preached and proclaimed, then this little place is more beautiful that Canterbury Cathedral and York Minster combined.