Preston Patrick Chapel, now Church: sketch by the Rev. Thomas Machell (1692)

Cumbria Record Office, Carlisle: MS D & C Thomas Machell vol. 2
Image © Dean and Chapter of Carlisle Cathedral, and reproduced by their kind permission

Temporary link to Machell's sketch of Firbank Chapel.

Machell's pencil sketch (34mm wide by 17mm high) shows the Church, then a Chapel of Ease, before its rebuilding in the nineteenth century, and presumably as it was when Fox visited it. Machell notes the dimensions as 8 yards wide by 23 yards long. There is no tower, but a neat belfry with, apparently, one bell. According at Machell, it had at least one stained glass window with the armorial bearings of the Preston family. In his journal itinerary, he says

It [the Hall] stands — In Boggy Bottom ground. But the Chapel a fair stone building ... stands — alone in Parke on the Top of an Hill & has a very pleasant prospect all round about, except to the East   [MS pages 386–7].

In the fuller description, he says,

In what S^t.s name this chappel was dedicated is not certainly known; but there is a well, about 200 yards Eastwards from It cald St. Gregory,s well, which gives vs occasion to suppose It was dedicated vnto that St.  Howbeit their Rus[h]bearing is at St James tide.

He also notes

There are several Ponds lying to gether in a Place calld Moss End — a Cap S ¼ m. [‘a quarter of a mile south of the Chapel’] which afford Eales & Tench. There is plenty of Black cocks & Gray hens with their pooles on Preston Fell — ... There is an Ewe Tree in the Chapel yard very old & decayd which shews the Antiquity of the Chaple. Not much wood of any kinde excepting fruites which are very Plentiful. Strawberyes most common. They have little fuel — And that only Turf fetched from preston fell about a mile of [off] [MS pages 297, 299].

The image has been slightly enhanced for legibility.

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