St. Peter's Church Finsthwaite and High Dam

St. Peter's Church is in the tiny village of Finsthwaite, near Newby Bridge in Cumbria. It has an unusual steeple structure and dates from around 1873, when it replaced an earlier building.

The church is accessed through a traditional lychgate, bordered by two ancient yew trees.

Historically, the lychgate formed part of the church. During funerals, the clergy would meet the corpse and part of the service would be read before burial. Some lych gates contained large flat stones called lich-stones upon which the shrouded corpse was laid.
Inside there are several beautiful stained glass windows, mosaics and a wooden beamed ceiling.

 The church also features a beautiful and intricately painted vaulted ceiling.

Outside, old gravestones lean this way and that, against a typical Lakeland backdrop.  One of the gravestones is connected to a possible Royal mystery, the occupant of the grave being known as "The Princess of Finsthwaite", alleged to be a daughter of Bonnie Prince Charlie, no less.

Nearby is the Stott Park Bobbin Mill, a working museum which illustrates the industrial heritage of the area. The mill supplied many of Lancashire's cotton mills with bobbins made from locally sourced ash trees, which were coppiced to provide a constant supply of wood to the mill.

Today the former mill is a popular tourist attraction between Easter and November. Visitors can watch bobbins being made using 100 year old methods and original machinery.
Nearby Finsthwaite Tarn was dammed in order to drive the water wheel which powered the mill. Now known as High and Low Dam, there is a popular and easy circular route around the tarn, the beginning of which is marked by a large wooden bobbin topped by a relief map of the area.

The inscription reads:
“This is the water that turned the wheel that spins the lathe, that shapes the wood, to make the bobbin, to wind the thread, that wove the wealth of Lancashire. These are the trees, that cut by man, will sprout again, feed Stott Mill, to make the bobbins to earn the pay, that fed the folk of Finsthwaite”.


 A short uphill walk through oak, birch and conifer woodlands bordered by rushing streams, brings you first to Low Dam. We walked on a bright but cold day with some snow on the ground and frozen branches near the water's edge.

 

 We decided to follow the path clockwise around the tarn....

 

  The tarn was partly frozen and very tranquil, making for great reflections.

 

Continuing uphill, we soon reached High Dam...

It was so peaceful here, up until this point we hadn't met a single person. Every so often there was a bit of chainsaw noise from the nearby woods, but apart from that it was blissfully silent. There were some weird and wonderful patterns frozen into the water.

 This one puts me in mind of The Shard.
 






 We found a lovely place to have our sandwiches and coffee...

 The Dam wall was within view in one direction, while across the water we could see the path we had recently walked.

 

  Continuing our walk we came into a clearing from which we had a great view of the snow topped fells in the distance.

 Soon we found ourselves  back at the car park.

On our way back home we stopped to admire some Highland cows, wonder if we had spotted a UFO and take a last photo of the gorgeous Lake District fells.

Read more about "The Princess of Finsthwaite" ...here

Read more about Stott Park Bobbin Mill .... here

Thanks for visiting, I hope you've enjoyed the photos, which can be viewed full size by clicking on them.