Rev. William Slater Calverley

The Rev. William Slater Calverley (1847–1898) was an unassuming rural English vicar who through diligent study and painstaking scrutiny became an extraordinary amateur antiquarian. Although born in Leicestershire, Calverley claimed his fame through interpreting the carved sculptured relics that he and others found in Cumberland churchyards. He made intricate drawings, corresponded with academic authorities, and gave his own interpretation to meaning, which he then relayed to a wider audience. Calverley later reproduced in intricate detail a life-sized reproduction of the famous Gosforth Cross, which now stands in Aspatria churchyard.

William Slater Calverley (1847–1898) was born at Kibworth, Leicestershire in 1847. After completing his formal education he entered New College, Oxford, but left to take up private tuition before attaining his degree. During this period he began to study art at the South Kensington School of Art and according to contemporary reports could have achieved the gold medal but for illness. This period of study proved very useful later in life. Notwithstanding his artistic ability he chose to enter the church. He was ordained deacon by Bishop Goodwin at Carlisle, Cumberland, in 1872 and afterwards became curate of Eskdale parish, South Cumberland. In the following year he took priest's orders and assumed an appointment as curate at Maryport, moving in 1874 to Dearham, where he served three years as curate and eight years as vicar of the same church. Under his guidance the church was restored, the vicarage and church yard enlarged and improved, and the district church at Ellenborough founded. In 1885, he became vicar of St. Kentigern's Church, Aspatria. One important feature of his pastorate of Aspatria was the acquisition of a peal of bells for the church.

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