24/05/2026
This little picture video was from last weekend.
This is an old 800 /900 year-old chapel in the spooky woods.
Apparently there is 6 spirits that haunt this chapel.
History
The first documentary evidence we have of this charming building is in a will dated 1532.
However the building is much earlier than that, a blocked 12th century window having been discovered during repairs. This, together with ‘herringbone’ masonry in the north wall, points to a date within the Norman period (1066-1200).
In the 17th century a gallery was added, and although this was removed at a later date the stone stairs by which access was gained still remains outside. In the 18th century the most significant alteration – the addition of the north transept – was undertaken.
However, with the arrival of the railway and a subsequent growth in population the old church was considered too small and mean, and a new one was built to the west of the old in 1879. The old church then became a Sunday School room and continued as such for over fifty years. Sometime in the 1930s it was closed up and fell into complete ruin.
The roof fell in, render fell from the walls, and vegetation took hold. The building was eventually declared redundant in 1974. We stepped in to take the church into our care, and immediately made it weather-proof. At the same time, a friends group was created, they are still going strong and help us to care for this wonderful place.
Highlights
Small Norman window arch on the south elevation
Herringbone masonry on external walls
Wineglass pulpit18th-century prayer boards
Impression of a footprint in the plaster on the window ledge by the pulpitEngraved glass without whom the church would not have survived
A look at the historic fabric
Just as osteoarchaeologists can reveal secrets from a small piece of bone, the material evidence in a church building can help us understand who built it, and when. techniques used at Chapel and what they reveal about the community who built the church, 900 years ago.
Recalling an 18th Century Interior
When we go inside a church, the impression we get is often of how it looked in the 19th century. However, at the Chapel the structural changes and furnishings of the 18th-century interior have been largely preserved. church, from large light-filled windows and a new transept, to commandment boards and an enormous pulpit on a wine-glass stem, from which the parson could keep a close eye on the entire congregation, even those in private box pews.
A church abandoned by the Victorians
Medieval Chapel was still thriving in the Georgian era, but as the 19th century progressed, cracks began to show. And by the early 20th century, this venerable building had fallen into complete disrepair.
