St Mark's Church and School

[curiouswombat]

Another post in my very occasional series looking at the churches of the island. It was a nice afternoon on Tuesday, and my travels took me through St Marks.

St Mark's is a tiny village in the mid-south of the island. Although in the parish of Malew, the farms in this area are a long way from the parish church (of which, more, in a day or two), and so a 'chapel of ease' was built for them and consecrated in 1772.

Like most of the other country churches, it is stone built, white-washed, and very plain - if you remember some of the other posts it will look familiar;



More pictures, including a couple of the village school

Here is the interior -



Originally it was designed to hold 200 people - it must have been a very tight squeeze! Although I suppose you could cram quite a few into the organ loft. It is unusual, now, in that some of the pews have been removed, in the middle, and replaced by chairs - I would guess this makes the space more adaptable. At the very back, beside the door, is a half pew n which sits a hot water urn, and there were a couple of boxes underneath - so I guess they make tea after the service on Sundays.

As usual the only decoration is the single stained glass window over the altar at the East end of the church.





My eye was caught by this plaque on the west wall -




I especially like the last line...

I was also very taken with this small piece of art, which stood on a small table beside the lectern. It is only about a foot long -





I seem to have missed the lectern itself - but it was very plain dark wood.

It might have been bright, but it was cold, and I really didn't see any particularly interesting headstones in the grave-yard worth taking pictures of.

The only other large structure in the hamlet is the school house which, you can see by the gravestones, stands right beside the church -



The school is no longer in use. But the master's house, on the left, is now a private residence.

Here is a closer look at the entrance to the school -



On the whole it is in good condition, and a good design as the door clearly opens into a porch where coats and boots could be kept, with another door through into the classroom, so giving something of an 'airlock' in winter - and the single class room has big windows to let in a lot of natural light, as you can see in the first picture of the school.

Rather a modern design for its day, I would think.



Yes - that stone above the door tells us that St Mark's National School was built in 1815. Before that I presume there was either an older building, or the children had to walk to the bigger village of Ballasalla three or four miles away.

There may have been an older building, as education at 'petty school' level was made compulsory in 1672 when Charles Earl of Derby was Lord of Man. Mind you it wasn't necessarily a very good education, and it did a great deal to lessen the role of Manx as the children were to be taught to read English; but in this it was no different to Wales, Scotland, or the Gaelic areas of Ireland - it was considered to be in the best interests of the children to teach them English.






I actually have pictures of Malew church as well - they are interesting because whilst, in some ways Melew is quite similar to St Marks, and most of the other small churches, in some ways it is quite different.

Totally unrelated - I have spent so much time this week reviewing and developing 'pathways' that I told my manager I am doubtless well qualified to join The Ramblers Association...

Comments

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I wondered that, too. Pondhopper agrees it looks like olive wood, and might well have been brought back by someone on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land or, perhaps, Santiago de Compostela.

Many of the small churches managed to get together enough money for one stained glass window, there above the altar - with plain glass in all the others.