Interest in St Mary’s Church continues to grow and there are now a number of publications available concerning the church.

The principal publications are The Pinecone by Jenny Uglow, Faber and Faber Ltd, 2012 and Sarah Losh and Wreay Church by Stephen Matthews, Bookcase, 2007. In addition there are a number of Sarah Losh Journals available through Bookcase, 17-19 Castle Street, Carlisle, Cumbria CA3 8SY, tel: 01228 544560, email: bookcasecarlisle.co.uk.

More detailed information has been collected in the book ‘Wreay Heritage’ which is available to view in the Sarah Losh Heritage Centre within the Chapel of Rest. This complements the interpretative display boards and gives further information related to the subject matter of the eight boards. The articles are available to download here.

A Bend in the River

1. Roman Wreay    Click here to download  (333kB PDF)
2. Inglewood Forest    Click here to download  (413kB PDF)
3. The derivation of the name Wreay    Click here to download  (838kB PDF)
4. The Twelve Men of Wreay     Click here to download  (293kB PDF)

Family Matters

5. St John’s Church, Newton Arlosh     Click here to download  (441kB PDF)
6. John Losh, the Big Black Squire     Click here to download  (424kB PDF)
7. James Losh     Click here to download  (380kB PDF)
8. George and William Losh     Click here to download  (326kB PDF)

The Misses Losh

9. John and Isabella Losh     Click here to download  (377kB PDF)
10. Woodside     Click here to download  (530kB PDF)
11. Rev. William Gaskin     Click here to download  (1729kB PDF)
12. William Paley     Click here to download  (320kB PDF)

Inspiration and Loss

13. Sarah’s Grand Tour     Click here to download  (221kB PDF)
14. The diary of James Losh     Click here to download  (236kB PDF)
15. David Dunbar, sculptor     Click here to download  (1248kB PDF)
16. The Bewcastle Cross     Click here to download  (383kB PDF)

Stone by Stone

17. Sarah Losh’s account of the Church building     Click here to download  (64kB PDF)
18. Building the Church     Click here to download  (628kB PDF)
19. Wreay Chapel and Chapel Yard Accounts     Click here to download  (229kB PDF)
20. Consecration of the new Chapel     Click here to download  (271kB PDF)

The Beauty of Creation

21. William Thain     Click here to download  (639kB PDF)
22. The stained glass in St Mary’s     Click here to download  (721kB PDF)
23. The font     Click here to download  (337kB PDF)
24. Faith and form     Click here to download  (693kB PDF)

Living On

25. Codicil to Sarah Losh’s first will     Click here to download  (340kB PDF)
26. Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s letters     Click here to download  (111kB PDF)
27. Dr Henry Lonsdale     Click here to download  (564kB PDF)
28. Canon Richard Hall     Click here to download  (284kB PDF)

Fields and Woods

29. A war child in Wreay     Click here to download  (602kB PDF)
30. Farming     Click here to download  (411kB PDF)
31. The railway and Wreay Station     Click here to download  (157kB PDF)
32. Wildlife of Wreay     Click here to download  (468kB PDF)

Wreay Cemetery

Wreay Cemetery (as opposed to the Churchyard immediately adjoining St Mary’s Church) is on land given by Sarah Losh and consecrated 12^th May 1842. Canon Abraham Richard Hall prepared a List of Burials recorded in the Parish Register as buried in the Cemetery in 1908 and charted the location of burials on a plan across a number of pages in his notebook.

In March 2021 Lois and Raymond Whittaker updated this record and produced an electronic version of the list together with photographs of all remaining headstones and an updated plan locating burial plots. These documents make this record more accessible to those interested in family and local history and can be viewed and downloaded here.

Wreay Cemetery: Record of Burials Click here to download  (740kB PDF)

Wreay Cemetery: Plan Click here to download  (700kB PDF)

Wreay Cemetery: Photographs of Headstones 1 – 600 Click here to download  (15MB PDF)

Wreay Cemetery: Photographs of Headstones 608 – 972 Click here to download  (14MB PDF)

St Mary’s Churchyard

It was in 1739 that Sir George Fleming, Bishop of Carlisle, consecrated both Wreay Chapel and its ‘Chapel yard or burying place for the bodies of all present inhabitants and their successors of the Chapelry, Village or District of Wreay or Wrey’. The surviving registers of burials commence in 1813 and one of the last burials recorded is that of the wife of the Vicar of Wreay, the Revd A R Hall, Mary Hall, who died in 1928.

In 1961 the headstones in the closed graveyard around St Mary’s Church in Wreay were removed as part of a tidying exercise of the overgrown churchyard. Ninety-eight headstones and memorials were removed and  broken up and disposed.

Fortunately before the stones were removed a list of decipherable inscriptions together with a plan indicating their position was made and this now resides in the Carlisle Archive Centre. A version of this record can be downloaded here.

St Mary’s Churchyard: Record of Headstone Inscriptions Click here to download (3MB PDF