St James’ Church, Ireby

Submitted by Alan Marsden on Sun, 01/03/2026 - 00:00

St James’ Church at Ireby, Cumberland, had a few unusual features when I called, such as a font I really struggled to date and a rather unusual, unplastered west wall. Although evidently Victorian, a medieval gravestone was built into the porch wall, suggesting that the current building replaced another of greater vintage. Despite these hints of antiquity, it was a fairly modern object which solicited my attention. By the pleasingly plain pulpit was a cartwheel. It had no sign of wear so it may have been made for its current, decorative usage, the real purpose of which remains unclear. Still, if any farmer of old-fashioned bent arrives to church in a horse and trap and loses a wheel along the way, all is not lost.

It reminded me of other, mysterious wheels, about which we read in scripture, especially in Ezekiel’s prophecy when he describes the throne of God. He states:

The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel (1:16)…And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them: and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up (1:19)…Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went, thither was their spirit to go; and the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels (1:20)…When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels (1:21)…I heard also the noise of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another, and the noise of the wheels over against them, and a noise of a great rushing (3:13)…

What are these objects?? Parts of a heavenly war chariot? Or are they actual angelic creatures, the shape and motion of which cannot readily be described? All very strange, but one day we might know the answer.

If preachers knew how vital, how eternal and how heavenly was the time spent preaching God’s word, we might do a better job. I have some inkling (based on scripture rather than feeling) that angelic visitors invisibly join us for worship and to hear what things we speak; the strange wheel of Ireby might be a more accurate reflection of spiritual reality than we might otherwise think.