Background
Losh was born at Woodside in Wreay, near Carlisle. Her father owned land in Woodside, and was a partner in an alkali factory at Walker on Tyneside, part of Losh, Wilson and Bell, with his brother William Losh.
Losh was born at Woodside in Wreay, near Carlisle. Her father owned land in Woodside, and was a partner in an alkali factory at Walker on Tyneside, part of Losh, Wilson and Bell, with his brother William Losh.
Her biographer describes her as antiquarian, architect and visionary. She was a landowner from Wreay, Cumbria, where her main work is to be found, Street Mary"s Church. lieutenant anticipates the Arts and Crafts Movement and forms part of a group with various associated buildings and monuments which Losh constructed.
Losh"s papers were destroyed, and none of her journals or drawings survives, but her life was described in The Worthies of Cumberland, first published by Henry Lonsdale in 1867.
Her birth date is not known, but surmised to be in late 1785 as she was baptised on 6 January 1786. Neither married, so Sara inherited Katherine"s share on her death in 1835.
According to Lonsdale, Losh was well read and well educated, attending schools in Wreay, London, and Bath, and travelling to France, Italy, and Germany in 1814 and 1817. She spoke fluent French and Italian, and could translate Latin easily.
Lonsdale compared her intelligence to George Eliot.
Losh designed and built several architectural projects in and around Wreay from the late 1820s, using her own money. She also built wells and village schools. By 1840, the old chapel in Wreay was in poor repair, and Losh offered to donate the land and pay for a replacement, provided she was given a free hand with its design.
Permission was given by a faculty in May 1841.
Losh based her design on an early Christian basilica, with an aisleless rectangular nave ending with a semicircular apse. She described the style as "early Saxon or modified Lombard".
In the apse, columns form spaces for thirteen seats. The altar is a slab of Italian marble on brass eagles.
The inside and outside surfaces of the church are decorated with naturalistic stone carvings of fossils, plants and animals, much done by the William Hindson, son of a local builder.
Pevsner compared the result to arts and crafts workmanship decades later. There are no explicitly Christian symbols, and no cross, but the profusion of decoration is considered by some to be a celebration of creation. The church was completed at a cost of £1,200 and dedicated in December 1842.
lieutenant is now a Grade II* listed building.
Losh also worked on the restoration of Street John the Evangelist"s Church, Newton Arlosh.
He was an influential member of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne, and a friend of William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey.