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The Lumley Chapel is a redundant
Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
church in the suburban village of
Cheam Cheam () is a suburb of London, England, south-west of Charing Cross. It is divided into North Cheam, Cheam Village and South Cheam. Cheam Village contains the listed buildings Lumley Chapel and the 16th-century Whitehall. It is adjacent to tw ...
, in the
London Borough of Sutton The London Borough of Sutton () is a London borough in south-west London, England and forms part of Outer London. It covers an area of and is the 80th largest local authority in England by population. It borders the London Borough of Croydon to ...
, England. 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, an ...
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 under the care of the
Churches Conservation Trust The Churches Conservation Trust is a registered charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk in England. The charity cares for over 350 churches of architectural, cultural and historic significance, which have been transferred in ...
. The chapel is located in the churchyard of St Dunstan's Church in Church Road, off Malden Road, the A2043.


History

The
Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...
acquired the manor of Cheam in 1018, and it is thought that the church was founded soon after this date. It was dedicated to
Saint Dunstan Saint Dunstan (c. 909 – 19 May 988) was an English bishop. He was successively Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, Bishop of Worcester, Bishop of London and Archbishop of Canterbury, later canonised as a saint. His work restored monastic life in E ...
, an earlier Archbishop of Canterbury. A south
aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parl ...
was added to the church in the 12th century. In 1580
John Lumley, 1st Baron Lumley John Lumley, 1st Baron Lumley, KB (c. 1533 – 1609) was an English aristocrat, who is remembered as one of the greatest collectors of art and books of his age. Early life John Lumley, born about 1533, was the grandson and heir of John, ...
inherited the nearby
Nonsuch Palace Nonsuch Palace was a Tudor royal palace, built by Henry VIII in Surrey, England; it stood from 1538 to 1682–83. Its site lies in what is now Nonsuch Park on the boundaries of the borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey and the London Borough ...
through his marriage to
Jane Fitzalan Jane Lumley, Baroness Lumley ( Lady Jane Fitzalan; 1537 – 27 July 1578), sometimes called Joanna, was an English noblewoman. She was the first person to translate Euripides into English. Life and family Jane is the eldest child of three sibli ...
, daughter of
Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel Henry Fitzalan, 12th Earl of Arundel KG (23 April 151224 February 1580) was an English nobleman, who over his long life assumed a prominent place at the court of all the later Tudor sovereigns, probably the only person to do so. Court caree ...
. During the 1590s Lumley converted the church into a memorial chapel for himself and his two wives.Dunk 1954.Llewellyn and Gapper 2010.Simon 2010. In the early 18th century the church consisted of a
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. Ove ...
with a south chapel, a
nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
with a south aisle, and a west tower. Later in the century, possibly in 1746, the south aisle and the south wall of the nave were demolished and replaced by a wider nave. At the same time a north aisle and a south porch were added. In 1864 a new church, also dedicated to St Dunstan, was built to the north. The older church was demolished, other than the east end of the chancel which was retained to contain the monuments and
brasses A monumental brass is a type of engraved church monument, sepulchral memorial, which in the 13th century began to partially take the place of three-dimensional church monument, monuments and effigy, effigies carved in stone or wood. Made of hard l ...
from the old church. This remnant of the former church was declared redundant on 16 June 2002, and was
vested In law, vesting is the point in time when the rights and interests arising from legal ownership of a property is acquired by some person. Vesting creates an immediately secured right of present or future deployment. One has a vested right to an ...
in the Churches Conservation Trust on 1 August 2002.


Architecture

The chapel is the oldest standing building in the London Borough of Sutton. It is constructed in partly
roughcast Roughcast or pebbledash is a coarse plaster surface used on outside walls that consists of lime and sometimes cement mixed with sand, small gravel and often pebbles or shells. The materials are mixed into a slurry and are then thrown at the wor ...
rubble Rubble is broken stone, of irregular size, shape and texture; undressed especially as a filling-in. Rubble naturally found in the soil is known also as 'brash' (compare cornbrash)."Rubble" def. 2., "Brash n. 2. def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionary ...
stone and brick. It has a tiled roof. The east window dates from the 15th century and has three lights. In the south wall is the blocked
arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...
that formerly led into the south chapel. In the north wall are fragments of a blocked window from the
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 ...
or the early
Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...
era. Inside the church the walls are plastered. Along the top of the north and south walls is a
frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...
decorated with fruit and foliage. Over this is a
cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...
, rising from which is a plastered
barrel vault A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault, wagon vault or wagonhead vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance. The curves are ...
decorated with ribs and pendants.


Memorials

Inside the chapel are
alabaster Alabaster is a mineral or rock that is soft, often used for carving, and is processed for plaster powder. Archaeologists and the stone processing industry use the word differently from geologists. The former use it in a wider sense that includes ...
and
marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...
monuments to John Lumley and his two wives, Lady Jane Fitzalan and Elizabeth Darcy. Lady Jane died in 1578; her tomb is decorated with family
coats of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its wh ...
and depictions of Jane's three children at prayer in the chapel of Nonsuch Palace. John Lumley died in 1609; his tomb is also decorated with
heraldry Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branch ...
. Elizabeth Darcy died in 1617. Her recumbent
effigy An effigy is an often life-size sculptural representation of a specific person, or a prototypical figure. The term is mostly used for the makeshift dummies used for symbolic punishment in political protests and for the figures burned in certai ...
lies on the tomb. Detailed preparatory coloured drawings of the three monuments, made in about 1590, appear in Lumley's '' Red Velvet Book''. Other memorials include those to the Pybus family of Cheam House, and the Antrobus family of Lower Cheam House. A mural monument exists in memory of the merchant, lawyer and philosopher
James Boevey James Boevey (1622–1696) (pronounced "Boovey") was an English merchant, lawyer and philosopher of Huguenot parentage. Origins He was born in London at 6 a.m. on 7 May 1622 in Mincing Lane, in the parish of St. Dunstan-in-the-East. He was the ...
(1622–1696) and his third wife Margaretta (1638–1714). On the south wall is a tablet to Ann, the five-year-old daughter of Rev William Gilpin, headmaster of Cheam School. The brasses are dated between 1450 and 1632. Amongst the brasses are those to the Yerde and Fromond family who held the manor of East Cheam. John Yerde, esq., married Dame Anne Courtenay who is believed to be the daughter of Hugh de Courtney, 4th Earl of Devon and his wife, Anne Talbot. Anne Courtenay's Arms on the brass shield clearly display her Courtenay connection to the Earls of Devon. Most of the brasses are now only fragments embedded into the floor but the shields and a small brass to John Yerde still exist, as does a brass rubbing dating from 1837 when the brass was still in its original form.


Associated features

The currently active
parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...
of St Dunstan, designed by
F. H. Pownall Frederick Hyde Pownall (22 August 1831 – 1907) was a British architect. He was County Surveyor for Middlesex for about 45 years, and designed both Anglican and Roman Catholic churches. Life He was the son of John George Henry Pownall (1 ...
, is situated to the north of the chapel, and is also designated as a Grade II* listed building. The
lychgate A lychgate, also spelled lichgate, lycugate, lyke-gate or as two separate words lych gate, (from Old English ''lic'', corpse), also ''wych gate'', is a gateway covered with a roof found at the entrance to a traditional English or English-style ch ...
, dated 1891, at the entrance to the churchyard, is listed Grade II. In the churchyard are three tombs, each of which is Grade II listed.


Gallery

Exterior of Lumley Chapel in the churchyard of St Dunstan's Church, Cheam.jpg, Exterior view of the entrance to the Lumley Chapel. Interior of Lumley Chapel, view from the entrance.jpg, Interior view seen from the entrance. Interior of Lumley Chapel, view from the rear-left corner.jpg, The window in the front wall, and the monument to Jane on the right wall. Interior of Lumley Chapel, view of the rear wall and entrance.jpg, The rear wall with the entrance. Interior of Lumley Chapel, view from the forward-right corner.jpg, The left wall with monuments to Elizabeth and John. Interior of Lumley Chapel, view of the forward-left wall.jpg, The monument to John in the front-left corner of the chapel.


See also

*
List of churches preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust in South East England The Churches Conservation Trust, which was initially known as the Redundant Churches Fund, is a Charitable organization, charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk, those that have been made redundant church, redundant by the ...


References


Further reading

* * *{{cite journal , first=Robin , last=Simon , title=''The Lumley Inventory'' and the Lumley Chapel , journal=British Art Journal , volume=11 , issue=1 , year=2010 , pages=4–5 Grade II* listed churches in London Church of England church buildings in the London Borough of Sutton English churches with Norman architecture English Gothic architecture in Greater London Churches preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust Grade II* listed buildings in the London Borough of Sutton