Yealand Conyers and St. John's Church

Sunday 12th January 2025 

Looking at the OS map recently, as I often do, I noticed a church less than four miles from home that I had never even driven past. It is situated on a little used link road. It makes for more interest when one has an objective for a walk. I had previously plotted a little route of less than three miles, and with a snap decision off I went on Sunday morning.

From Yealand Redmayne I walked anti-clockwise through s mixture of woodland, and limestone dotted open areas. The weather was dismal reducing distant views to a subdued purple haze, but the immediate ambience was all delight, and a little gem of walk. Recent snow and freezing temperatures had just subsided the day before and any areas of mud on the well established paths were still not quite thawed making for comfortable going.

As it happened there were two churches, the first being St. Mary's Catholic Church at Yealand Conyers. This was built by the Gillow family of furniture making fame and present incumbents of the nearby Leighton Hall and estate.

The church was built in 1852 for Richard Gillow of nearby Leighton Hall, and designed by the Lancaster architect E. G. Paley.^[4] It cost between £1,100 and £1,200

Courtesy of Wikipedia.

A short stretch of road going north from Yealand passed a Quaker meeting house and then a path across fields and downhill to a row of isolated farm buildings. They had been renovated to two quality dwellings with fittingly a new high end Porsche sports car and a top of the range Range Rover parked up.  

A short lane lead to tarmac and straight across to the short link road containing my objective: St. John's C of E church. I looked inside and the lights were still on from a service earlier this morning and an elderly lady was bustling about tidying up. I didn't want to intrude too much but managed a quick photo without being noticed. The church had obviously been heated, and that lighting had a warm glow. All was cosy and much more homely than one normally encounters in a church. I retreated and had a look round the extensive graveyard. There were number of war graves including two twenty four year olds who had died in the early part of 1914. stirring my emotions.

As I returned the church lady was just emerging and we had a little chat about, guess what, the weather and also her approval of my use of trekking poles.

A short lane and a couple of fields including the only stile on this walk which had been well supplied with gates had me back to the car. All in all a most enjoyable little outing.

From the car. The footpath lead off left from that furthest point on the road

St. Mary's Catholic Church

Yealand Conyers

High quality dwelling conversions

St. John's Church