A QUEEN from one of the deposed royal houses of 19th century Europe had a role in the building of a Roman Catholic Church in Coniston.

Some mystery still surrounds how big a part Queen Amelie played in the opening of the Sacred Heart Church at Hawsbank on the Torver Road.

She had died before the church opened but is said to have spent the summer in Coniston in 1859.

As a devout Catholic she had nowhere close to follow her faith in Coniston and is thought to have supported moves to create a new church - she may even have given money towards it.

The want of a Roman Catholic church in the village was noted in a publication called The Tablet in 1859.

Queen Amelie - there are various versions of her name - was born on April 26 in1782 as part of the Bourbon family of the Kingdom of Naples.

She was a granddaughter of Maria-Therasa, Empress of Austria.

Amelie married French King Louis Phillipe I and her aunt was Marie Antionette - who was executed during the French Revolution.

Her Marriage at Palermo in 1809 made her Duchess of Orleans and then French queen when Louis Phillipe was crowned in 1830.

He abdicated during the 1848 French uprising and the couple went into exile.

They were at a cottage in Nonfleur, Normandy, before leaving for Newhaven in East Sussex.

The royal pair were well received by Queen Victoria and she let them live at Claremont House, Surrey, for life.

Queen Amelie died on March 24 in 1866 at the age of 83.

Her grave gives her title as Duchess of Orleans, rather than as queen of the French.

A Coniston Roman Catholic mission was established in 1866, said to be the first in the Lake District.

From 1866 until the new church opened in 1872, services were held at Dunn's Cottage, Cat Bank, by Father Laverty, of Belmont and at "The Loft by Baxter's".

Coniston's new church cost £2,366 plus 13 shillings and 11 pence and was consecrated by Alexander Goss, the Bishop of Liverpool.

The real benefactor behind the building was not a queen but Miss Elizabeth Aglionby, of Wigton Hall.

She left £2,000 towards the cost of the land, church and presbytery.

The architect was James O'Byrne, of Liverpool, and the builder was George Usher, of Coniston.

Miss Aglionby was buried in the churchyard at Coniston.

The Mannex Directory of Furness and Cartmel for 1882 notes: “The Catholic Church, which, with its Gothic windows and gables, its saddleback tower and adjacent presbytery, forms a pretty group of buildings beautifully situated on the Broughton Road, is of recent date, and is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

“It was erected by public subscription, and was opened September 29, 1872, by the Right Rev. Alexander Goss, the Catholic Bishop of Liverpool on the Sunday before his lamented death.

“The church, which is calculated to hold 200 souls, is much indebted to the munificence of the late Miss Aglionby, of Wigton Hall, a lady much respected in the district, and celebrated throughout England for her breed of English mastiffs.

“Her body is interred at the entrance of the church, which is under the pastoral care of the Reverend. Henry Gibson.”