IT was a place of worship for more than 140 years....

But St John’s Church at Croglin, nestling in a remote part of the Eden Valley, has finally reached the end of its spiritual journey after Church of England officials put the chapel on the market, with an asking price of £75,000.

Beautifully kept, and still crammed with the paraphernalia of church life, the chapel sits in the middle of a large graveyard, crammed with ancient tombstones, many worn and moss-covered.

The church itself is elegant, with whitewashed walls, and imposing windows through which light floods.

At the head of the chapel, looming above the simple altar, is a glorious stained-glassed window, depicting the ascension of Christ.

The church is being marketed by the Penrith branch of estate agent PFK.

Its online advert says that the grade II Listed chapel could potentially be converted into a single residential dwelling, subject to listed building consent. It already has electricity and running water, but as PFK’s Penrith branch manager Harriet Simpson explained the buyer will not be allowed to interfere with the graveyard or its graves.

“It can’t be touched,” she said.

“What’s being sold is just the chapel and about a metre of land outside the walls. But there’ll be a right of access and the owner can apply for planning permission to put in a parking space. Your garden would be the graveyard and there would be a lot of work to get listed building consent.”

She said there has been considerable interest since the church was first advertised in early December, and one offer. The Venerable Reverend Richard Pratt, Archdeacon of West Cumbria, said around a dozen rural Cumbrian churches have been sold in recent years - the result of diminishing congregations, rising maintenance costs, and a reduced clergy numbers.

“It’s very sad,” he said. Some rural churches are working more collectively to boost their survival chances.

He said there was nothing ‘spooky’ about the graveyard, given that it was filled with the remains of local people who would have been loved and cherished.

St John’s features in the legend of the Croglin vampire. According to the story, the creature tormented a local family. They pursued it, and at daylight found it its remains in an open crypt in graveyard.

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