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# The naturalistic carved font at St. Mary, Wreay
- URL: https://www.digest.andymarshall.co/the-naturalistic-carved-font-at-st-mary-wreay/
- Published: 2026-08-30T19:01:17.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-30T20:24:11.000Z
- Description: For me this place is prescient: it has themes and portents ahead of its time.
- Author: Andy  Marshall
- Tags: st. mary wreay, wreay, sarah losh, victorian, cumbria, Treasure, #treasure-12

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2026/08/img_0471.jpg)

**A farmer at my lodging tells me to visit the church in Wreay (pronounced 'rea', as in Chris Rea), a few hundred yards from the campsite. It was built by a woman called Sarah Losh in 1840, who funded the cost on the proviso that she could design it.**

I call in to the church on the way back to Carlisle. St Mary’s, Wreay is one of the most refreshing churches that I’ve come across. Every building has its time and this building’s time is now. I imagine when it was first built that architectural buffs might have seen the church as an act of naivety. For me this place is prescient: it has themes and portents ahead of its time. It’s as if Sarah Losh has mastered the art of time travel and, through this building, fashioned a message that’s relevant to us.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2026/08/img_0427.jpg)

Simon Jenkins, in his book Thousand Best Churches, says of Wreay: *“Unlike almost all the works in this book, Wreay appears to have been the creation of a single original mind. Sarah Losh was an individual genius, an architectural Charlotte Bronte. The Arts and Crafts Movement took half a century to catch up with her. “*

For me, it is the font that holds the DNA to the whole scheme. 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2026/08/img_0430.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2026/08/img_0410-1.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2026/08/img_0414.jpg)

Andy Marshall’s Treasure Hoard Gazetteer

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