St James the Less

Getting here

Please check service times if there is a fifth Sunday in the month as all six churches in the Benefice share a joint service at one of the churches. We also have extra activities at times such as Christmas and Easter. All details can be found on our website 'Benefice of East Lonsdale'. NOTE: AUTUMN 2015 - SPRING 2016 Revd Canon Robert Hannaford has left the Benefice to take up a post as full time Minister at St John's Church, Workington. We will have a temporary service pattern until a new Minister is appointed.

It would appear that there has been a church on this site for at least a thousand years, although most of the present building dates back to the fifteenth century and was much restored in the nineteenth.

The church is built on the first high ground above the flood plain of the River Wenning, just north of a river crossing.  There is some evidence that a stone built church existed before the Norman Conquest of 1066.  Unfortunately almost nothing now remains of that Anglian building, although the small blocked window in the porch would appear to come from this time.  It can also be inferred from the Domesday Book (1086) that a church building existed on this site.  In later Norman times the church possibly became a chapel of ease to St. Wilfrid, Melling, perhaps served by monks from Cockersands Abbey.

By the 1880's the church had become dilapidated.  The Revd Arthur Wellesley Foster took a leading part in the subsequent major restoration.  The sons of William M Foster of Hornby Castle fulfilled their father's wishes to restore the church after his death and work was undertaken at a cost of £3,269.

Further details can be found in the History and Guide on sale in the church for £2

Monks Gate
Tatham
LANCASTER
LA2 8NH

If you'd prefer to navigate using Google Maps please use the button below