Longworth Roman Catholic Chapel is a redundant chapel in the village of Bartestree,

Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthsh ...

, England, standing adjacent to the former

Convent A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglic ...

of Our Lady of Charity and Refuge. It is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...

as a designated Grade II*

listed building 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 ...

, and is owned by the Historic Chapels Trust.

Early history

The chapel has been on its present site since 1869–70. It was originally the private chapel of the

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

at nearby Old Longworth that was probably built in about 1390. After the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

it became redundant, and during the 17th century it was being used for agricultural purposes, including cider making. In the middle of the 19th century the manor house and chapel were owned by Robert Biddulph Phillips. He became a convert to

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and decided to restore the chapel, which was carried out in 1851. In 1863 he founded the Convent of Our Lady of Charity and Refuge in Bartestree for his daughter. When he died in 1864 he was buried in the chapel, but in his will he stipulated that the chapel should be moved to stand adjacent to the convent. This was carried out in 1869–70, and the architect responsible for supervising the move and restoring the chapel to its present form was almost certainly E. W. Pugin, who had designed the convent.

Architecture

Exterior

The chapel is constructed in buff and pink

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

with a tiled roof. It consists of a single cell and is oriented north-south. The entrance is through a porch in the north end, its door facing east, and the west wall is attached to the convent. At the corner of the building are diagonal

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral ( ...

es. Much of the material incorporated in the fabric of the reconstructed chapel has been re-used from the

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

chapel. Most of the windows and the doorway are from the original chapel and are in late Decorated or early Perpendicular style. However evidence, including before-and-after photographs, show that the form of the present chapel differs from the original; it was not merely dismantled and reconstructed on the new site. The present chapel has been described as "a Victorian interpretation of a medieval building using high quality medieval material".

Interior

The single-cell interior contains a small

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...

and a recess in the west wall leading into the convent. The roofs of the chancel and the rest of the chapel have different forms of construction. The stone altar and reredos are thought to have been designed by Pugin. The altar has statues in niches of Saint Francis de Sales, Saint Jean Frances de Chantal, Saint Teresa, Saint Anne, and another, unidentified saint. The reredos contains six niches containing statues of angels. In the east wall are two

piscina A piscina is a shallow basin placed near the altar of a church, or else in the vestry or sacristy, used for washing the communion vessels. The sacrarium is the drain itself. Anglicans usually refer to the basin, calling it a piscina. For Roman Ca ...

s. The chapel contains a number of memorials to the Phillips family. In the south window is stained glass by Hardman & Co., currently removed for safe-keeping pending restoration.

Associated buildings

The adjacent convent together with its presbytery are listed at Grade II.

Recent history

After years of abandonment, the convent was finally converted into residential units and the nuns chapel broken up into flats. The adjoining chapel was acquired in a derelict state by the Historic Chapels Trust who have negotiated grant of £143,000 from

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

and raised additional donations for the first phase of repairs, completed in 2011. These have rendered the chapel secure and weathertight. The chapel is available for hire for concerts, meetings and small scale events during the warmer months and occasional services are held. Donations and grants are being sought for the £250,000 needed to complete the restoration. A local committee has been created to help manage the chapel day to day and to explore new uses for the space.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bartestree, Longworth Grade II* listed churches in Herefordshire 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United Kingdom Churches preserved by the Historic Chapels Trust Grade II* listed Roman Catholic churches in England Roman Catholic churches in Herefordshire Churches in Herefordshire Roman Catholic chapels in England