St Mary's Chapel, Arley
Encyclopedia
St Mary's Chapel, Arley, is the private chapel to Arley Hall
near the village of Arley
, Cheshire
, England. It has been designated by English Heritage
as a Grade II* listed building. The chapel is situated to the northeast of the hall.
. The hall was in Jacobean
style but Egerton-Warburton, an Anglo-Catholic influenced by the Oxford Movement
, decided that its chapel should be in Gothic
style and commissioned Anthony Salvin
to design it. The chapel was consecrated in September 1845. In 1856–57 a north aisle
and entrance porch designed by George Street
were added.
ashlar
and rendered
brick, with tile and slate
roofs. Its plan consists of a four-bay
nave
with a north aisle
, a south porch, a two-bay chancel
, and an octagonal bellcote. The porch originally connected the chapel with the house. The chapel is in Decorated style. In the south wall is a two-light mullion
ed window, and a projecting two-storey bay (the former porch) that has a rendered south wall. The west wall is plain. The east wall contains an oriel window
supported by a buttress
carved with beasts. On each side of this is a small lancet window
. In the angle between the south projection and the nave is the bellcote. In its southeast wall is a single lancet window, and in the bell stage are eight more lancets. The north wall contains two two-light mullioned windows, buttresses and gargoyle
s. At the east end of the nave is an angled buttress containing a niche
with a statue of the Virgin and Child
. Around the nave and chancel is a pierced parapet
. The south wall of the chancel contains two two-light windows with Decorated tracery
, a priest's door, and buttresses, above which are gargoyles, and a crocket
ed pinnacle
. The east wall has two windows, one to the aisle, and the other to the chancel.
s decorated with carved angels holding shields, each of which is different. Along the south wall of the nave is a string course decorated with ballflowers. The north arcade
is of three bays whose columns have capitals
carved with foliage. In the church are three corona chandelier
s. The lectern
was made by Singer of Frome
. The screen was designed by Street and is painted polychromatic
ally, as is a radiator grill hiding central heating. The latter is in the style of a 13th-century tomb, and is decorated with lily finial
s. The font
consists of a bowl carved with foliage and the Agnus Dei, supported by marble
columns. In the chancel is a piscina
and a triple sedilia
. The east window contains glass designed by Kempe
.
Arley Hall
Arley Hall is a country house in the village of Arley, Cheshire, England, about south of Lymm and north of Northwich. It is home to the owner, Viscount Ashbrook and his family. The house is a Grade II* listed building, as is its adjacent chapel. Formal gardens to the southwest of the hall...
near the village of Arley
Arley, Cheshire
Arley is a small village in the civil parish of Aston by Budworth, Cheshire, England adjacent to Arley Hall. 0.7 miles to the east is a small group of houses known as Arley Green. The village is 3.8 miles south of Lymm and 5 miles north of Northwich.The buildings now comprising Arley Green...
, Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
, England. It has been designated by English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
as a Grade II* listed building. The chapel is situated to the northeast of the hall.
History
Arley Hall was rebuilt between 1832 and 1845 for its owner Rowland Egerton-WarburtonRowland Egerton-Warburton
Rowland Eyles Egerton-Warburton was a landowner in Cheshire, England. He was a devout Anglican in the high church tradition and a local benefactor. He paid for the restoration of his parish church and for the building of two new churches in villages on his estates...
. The hall was in Jacobean
Jacobean architecture
The Jacobean style is the second phase of Renaissance architecture in England, following the Elizabethan style. It is named after King James I of England, with whose reign it is associated.-Characteristics:...
style but Egerton-Warburton, an Anglo-Catholic influenced by the Oxford Movement
Oxford Movement
The Oxford Movement was a movement of High Church Anglicans, eventually developing into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose members were often associated with the University of Oxford, argued for the reinstatement of lost Christian traditions of faith and their inclusion into Anglican liturgy...
, decided that its chapel should be in Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
style and commissioned Anthony Salvin
Anthony Salvin
Anthony Salvin was an English architect. He gained a reputation as an expert on medieval buildings and applied this expertise to his new buildings and his restorations...
to design it. The chapel was consecrated in September 1845. In 1856–57 a north aisle
Aisle
An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of seats on both sides or with rows of seats on one side and a wall on the other...
and entrance porch designed by George Street
George Edmund Street
George Edmund Street was an English architect, born at Woodford in Essex.- Life :Street was the third son of Thomas Street, solicitor, by his second wife, Mary Anne Millington. George went to school at Mitcham in about 1830, and later to the Camberwell collegiate school, which he left in 1839...
were added.
Exterior
The chapel is constructed in red sandstoneSandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
ashlar
Ashlar
Ashlar is prepared stone work of any type of stone. Masonry using such stones laid in parallel courses is known as ashlar masonry, whereas masonry using irregularly shaped stones is known as rubble masonry. Ashlar blocks are rectangular cuboid blocks that are masonry sculpted to have square edges...
and rendered
Stucco
Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...
brick, with tile and slate
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...
roofs. Its plan consists of a four-bay
Bay (architecture)
A bay is a unit of form in architecture. This unit is defined as the zone between the outer edges of an engaged column, pilaster, or post; or within a window frame, doorframe, or vertical 'bas relief' wall form.-Defining elements:...
nave
Nave
In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...
with a north aisle
Aisle
An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of seats on both sides or with rows of seats on one side and a wall on the other...
, a south porch, a two-bay chancel
Chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building...
, and an octagonal bellcote. The porch originally connected the chapel with the house. The chapel is in Decorated style. In the south wall is a two-light mullion
Mullion
A mullion is a vertical structural element which divides adjacent window units. The primary purpose of the mullion is as a structural support to an arch or lintel above the window opening. Its secondary purpose may be as a rigid support to the glazing of the window...
ed window, and a projecting two-storey bay (the former porch) that has a rendered south wall. The west wall is plain. The east wall contains an oriel window
Oriel window
Oriel windows are a form of bay window commonly found in Gothic architecture, which project from the main wall of the building but do not reach to the ground. Corbels or brackets are often used to support this kind of window. They are seen in combination with the Tudor arch. This type of window was...
supported by a buttress
Buttress
A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall...
carved with beasts. On each side of this is a small lancet window
Lancet window
A lancet window is a tall narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural motif are most often found in Gothic and ecclesiastical structures, where they are often placed singly or in pairs.The motif first...
. In the angle between the south projection and the nave is the bellcote. In its southeast wall is a single lancet window, and in the bell stage are eight more lancets. The north wall contains two two-light mullioned windows, buttresses and gargoyle
Gargoyle
In architecture, a gargoyle is a carved stone grotesque, usually made of granite, with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building thereby preventing rainwater from running down masonry walls and eroding the mortar between...
s. At the east end of the nave is an angled buttress containing a niche
Niche (architecture)
A niche in classical architecture is an exedra or an apse that has been reduced in size, retaining the half-dome heading usual for an apse. Nero's Domus Aurea was the first semi-private dwelling that possessed rooms that were given richly varied floor plans, shaped with niches and exedras;...
with a statue of the Virgin and Child
Madonna (art)
Images of the Madonna and the Madonna and Child or Virgin and Child are pictorial or sculptured representations of Mary, Mother of Jesus, either alone, or more frequently, with the infant Jesus. These images are central icons of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox Christianity where Mary remains...
. Around the nave and chancel is a pierced parapet
Parapet
A parapet is a wall-like barrier at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony or other structure. Where extending above a roof, it may simply be the portion of an exterior wall that continues above the line of the roof surface, or may be a continuation of a vertical feature beneath the roof such as a...
. The south wall of the chancel contains two two-light windows with Decorated tracery
Tracery
In architecture, Tracery is the stonework elements that support the glass in a Gothic window. The term probably derives from the 'tracing floors' on which the complex patterns of late Gothic windows were laid out.-Plate tracery:...
, a priest's door, and buttresses, above which are gargoyles, and a crocket
Crocket
A crocket is a hook-shaped decorative element common in Gothic architecture. It is in the form of a stylised carving of curled leaves, buds or flowers which is used at regular intervals to decorate the sloping edges of spires, finials, pinnacles, and wimpergs....
ed pinnacle
Pinnacle
A pinnacle is an architectural ornament originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire...
. The east wall has two windows, one to the aisle, and the other to the chancel.
Interior
The nave roof is supported on corbelCorbel
In architecture a corbel is a piece of stone jutting out of a wall to carry any superincumbent weight. A piece of timber projecting in the same way was called a "tassel" or a "bragger". The technique of corbelling, where rows of corbels deeply keyed inside a wall support a projecting wall or...
s decorated with carved angels holding shields, each of which is different. Along the south wall of the nave is a string course decorated with ballflowers. The north arcade
Arcade (architecture)
An arcade is a succession of arches, each counterthrusting the next, supported by columns or piers or a covered walk enclosed by a line of such arches on one or both sides. In warmer or wet climates, exterior arcades provide shelter for pedestrians....
is of three bays whose columns have capitals
Capital (architecture)
In architecture the capital forms the topmost member of a column . It mediates between the column and the load thrusting down upon it, broadening the area of the column's supporting surface...
carved with foliage. In the church are three corona chandelier
Chandelier
A chandelier is a branched decorative ceiling-mounted light fixture with two or more arms bearing lights. Chandeliers are often ornate, containing dozens of lamps and complex arrays of glass or crystal prisms to illuminate a room with refracted light...
s. The lectern
Lectern
A lectern is a reading desk with a slanted top, usually placed on a stand or affixed to some other form of support, on which documents or books are placed as support for reading aloud, as in a scripture reading, lecture, or sermon...
was made by Singer of Frome
Frome
Frome is a town and civil parish in northeast Somerset, England. Located at the eastern end of the Mendip Hills, the town is built on uneven high ground, and centres around the River Frome. The town is approximately south of Bath, east of the county town, Taunton and west of London. In the 2001...
. The screen was designed by Street and is painted polychromatic
Polychromatic
The term polychromatic means having several colours.It is used to describe light that exhibits more than one color. In a technical respect, this can also mean that it contains radiation of more than one wavelength. The study of polychromatics is particularly useful in the production of diffraction...
ally, as is a radiator grill hiding central heating. The latter is in the style of a 13th-century tomb, and is decorated with lily finial
Finial
The finial is an architectural device, typically carved in stone and employed decoratively to emphasize the apex of a gable or any of various distinctive ornaments at the top, end, or corner of a building or structure. Smaller finials can be used as a decorative ornament on the ends of curtain rods...
s. The font
Baptismal font
A baptismal font is an article of church furniture or a fixture used for the baptism of children and adults.-Aspersion and affusion fonts:...
consists of a bowl carved with foliage and the Agnus Dei, supported by marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
columns. In the chancel is a piscina
Piscina
A piscina is a shallow basin placed near the altar of a church, used for washing the communion vessels. The sacrarium is the drain itself. Anglicans usually refer to the basin, calling it a piscina. Roman Catholics usually refer to the drain, and by extension, the basin, as the sacrarium...
and a triple sedilia
Sedilia
Sedilia , in ecclesiastical architecture, is the term used to describe stone seats, usually to be found on the south side of an altar, often in the chancel, for the use of the officiating priests...
. The east window contains glass designed by Kempe
Charles Eamer Kempe
Charles Eamer Kempe was a well-known Victorian stained glass designer. After attending Twyford School, he studied for the priesthood at Pembroke College, Oxford, but it became clear that his severe stammer would be an impediment to preaching...
.