St Mary’s Church, Kirkby Lonsdale

St Mary’s Church at Kirkby Lonsdale is a suitably grand and ancient construction for so quaint and upmarket a town. As well as dating back to Norman times, of which some of its doorways and internal pillars speak so eloquently, the feature that struck me on my last visit was the spoiling of its symmetry. This quality is prized in classical architecture, but as St Mary’s is neither Greek, Roman or Georgian, one need not be overly exercised by this. Nevertheless, the positioning of the clock on the tower, above, appears to be the work of a drunkard or someone suffering from vertigo as he ascended the scaffolding. Although it retains some of the second floor’s windows, it still obscures them and looks decidedly odd.

Similarly, the external east wall, below, shows a neat set of Early English windows (1100s) flanked by a matching pair from the Decorated period (1250-1350), which are nicely proportioned, and capped by an oval window which I suspect is from the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries. Yet this, too, is somewhat compromised by an extension in the northeast wall, which I presume to be a vestry (the building was locked when I called), which spoils the congruity and equilibrium of the whole.

In a medieval church, this hotch-potch appearance only adds to the charm and bespeaks twenty generations’ wealth, artistic taste and theology. Nevertheless, order and regularity are the hallmarks of God’s creation; fallen man in his ignorance and folly distorts, corrupts, twists and spoils. The current creation is still lovely, but it is spoiled by our sin's imbalance corruption; one day, the Creator will re-create, and there will be no manmade errors or discrepancies. In the meantime, He graciously re-creates humans in His own, perfect image when they come to Him through the Perfect Man and mediator, Christ Jesus.

And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. Revelation 21:5

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