Chapel of St Helen (also St Helen's Chapel) is an ancient religious building in

Wicken Bonhunt __NOTOC__ Wicken Bonhunt is a village and a civil parish of north-west Essex, in the non-metropolitan district of Uttlesford, England. It is on the B1038 (Buntingford) road and is midway between the larger villages of Newport and Clavering. T ...

, north-west

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. It dates from around the 11th century and is believed to be one of the oldest surviving buildings in the east of England. It has also been described as 10th century. Pevsner's Essex architecture guide of 1954 describes it as: "A complete Norman chapel of nave and chancel with a number of original windows". The chapel is at Bonhunt Farm, on the B1038 (

Newport Newport most commonly refers to: *Newport, Wales *Newport, Rhode Island, US Newport or New Port may also refer to: Places Asia *Newport City, Metro Manila, a Philippine district in Pasay Europe Ireland *Newport, County Mayo, a town on the ...

Buntingford Buntingford is a market town and civil parish in the district of East Hertfordshire and county of Hertfordshire in England. It lies next to the River Rib and is located on the historic Roman road, Ermine Street. As a result of its location, it ...

) road and close to a motorway flyover for the M11.

Design

The

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

, thatched chapel is built from flint and pebble and contains two 12th-century windows on the south and west walls. It was extensively restored in the 13th century and again in the 20th. It is long and less than across at its widest point, with the nave being considerably narrower.

History

Surviving records of the chapel's history list the names of three of its priests, including Miles in 1248. In 1340, there is a record that land was given to the nearby Hospital of St Mary and St Leonard in Newport to pay for a priest to hold a daily service at the chapel. The chapel was dissolved in 1543 and left vacant. History has not always been kind to the chapel. The RCHM's 1916 survey, ''An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Essex'', records it as desecrated and in use as a stable, although it does describe its condition as fairly good. Extensive restoration took place around 1918, presided over by the then owner of Bonhunt Farm, and architectural features were carefully preserved. By the 1930s, it was once again being used as a shed.

Associated archaeological finds

A major middle

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

settlement found near the chapel in 1967 was excavated in the early 1970s, during construction of the M11. It showed signs of

prehistoric Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of ...

(described as "presumed late

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

" in a

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

report), as well as Norman, activity and included a burial ground around Chapel of St Helen containing over 200 human remains. The Saxon settlement is considered to be associated with the chapel.

Current status

The chapel is now maintained, and is part of the

Diocese of Chelmsford The Diocese of Chelmsford is a Church of England diocese, part of the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers Essex and the five East London boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Havering, Newham, Redbridge, and Waltham Forest (most of which wer ...

. An annual service is held at the chapel, led by a team of volunteers from Wicken Bonhunt. Although the chapel is only usually open for the annual service, the exterior can be seen from the roadside and a

public footpath A footpath (also pedestrian way, walking trail, nature trail) is a type of thoroughfare that is intended for use only by pedestrians and not other forms of traffic such as motorized vehicles, bicycles and horses. They can be found in a wide ...

passes nearby.

References

External sources

Archaeology collections at Saffron Walden Museum
* ttp://www.wickenbonhunt.org.uk/index.php?f=data_home&a=6 Description of walk taking in Chapel of St Helen {{DEFAULTSORT:Wicken Bonhunt, Saint Helen 11th-century church buildings in England Church of England church buildings in Uttlesford Grade II listed churches in Essex English churches with Norman architecture Thatched buildings in England