St Edmund's Chapel is a church in

Dover Dover ( ) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, dedicated to St Edmund. It was completed in 1262 as a wayside

chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

or chapel of rest for the cemetery for the poor beside the Maison Dieu, just outside the enclosed part of the medieval town, a short distance above Biggin Gate, and for pilgrims setting off for

Thomas Becket Thomas Becket (), also known as Saint Thomas of Canterbury, Thomas of London and later Thomas à Becket (21 December 1119 or 1120 – 29 December 1170), served as Lord Chancellor from 1155 to 1162, and then as Archbishop of Canterbury fr ...

's shrine at

Canterbury Cathedral Canterbury Cathedral is the cathedral of the archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual leader of the Church of England and symbolic leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Located in Canterbury, Kent, it is one of the oldest Christianity, Ch ...

. This cemetery had been established by the monks of

Dover Priory The Priory of St. Mary the Virgin and Martin of Tours, St. Martin of the New Work, or Newark, commonly called Dover Priory, was a priory at Dover in southeast England. It was variously independent in rule, then occupied by canons regular of t ...

. The building is about 28 feet in length, by 14 feet broad with walls of rubble masonry two feet thick, with

Caen stone Caen stone () is a light creamy-yellow Jurassic limestone quarried in north-western France near the city of Caen. The limestone is a fine grained oolitic limestone formed in shallow water lagoons in the Bathonian Age about 167 million years ...

quoins Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th-century encyclopedia, ...

and dressings. It was first consecrated on Refreshment Sunday 30 March 1253 by Bishop Richard of Chichester, who preached his last sermon on that occasion, saying that he had always longed before his last day to "consecrate one church at least in honour of Blessed Edmund." Next morning during Mass, he fell to the ground, and was carried to bed in the Maison Dieu, where he died on 3 April. His internal organs were then removed in this chapel in preparation for the journey to

Chichester Cathedral Chichester Cathedral, formally known as the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity, is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Chichester. It is located in Chichester, in West Sussex, England. It was founded as a cathedral in 1075, when the seat of th ...

, where he wished to be buried, and placed in the chapel altar. Because of this and its dedication, it became a place of pilgrimage in its own right. Dover St Edmunds Chapel

At the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the chapel, Priory and Maison Dieu were all dissolved in 1544. The rest of its history is sketchy - immediately after the dissolution, it was probably still associated with the fortunes of the Maison Dieu and became part of a victualling store for the Navy, and later became a store-house for the shops which came to be built in Biggin Street. In the middle of the 19th century it was converted into a two-floor building, and became a dwelling-house and forge. In 1943 artillery shells from the cross channel guns destroyed the two shops hiding the chapel on the Priory Road side, leaving the chapel itself untouched. Attempts to make it a

Scheduled Ancient Monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage, visu ...

in 1963 failed and it was scheduled for demolition, but on attracting interest from a local Catholic priest(Father Tanner) it was privately purchased two years later. From 1967, it underwent a one-year restoration project, using original medieval techniques (although at least 75 per cent of the building seen today is original), and reconsecrated in 196

During the restoration there was a 4-day archaeological investigation conducted by Brian Phil

In 1973 the building was protected with a grade II* listing. It is now an ecumenical chapel, and was for a time open to the public. It now rarely opens. It is maintained by The St Edmund of Abingdon Memorial Trust. Though it is used for a Saturday morning Eucharist, a Christian Unity vigil, candle-lit services for the Feast Days of St Edmund and St Richard, it now opens to the public less frequently. On Good Friday 18 April 2014 prayers were said in the chapel by the Archbishop of Canterbury The Most Reverend

Justin Welby Justin Portal Welby (born 6 January 1956) is an Anglican bishop who served as the 105th archbishop of Canterbury in the Church of England from 2013 to 2025. After an 11-year career in the oil industry, Welby trained for ordination at St John ...

. This was probably the first visit by an Archbishop of Canterbury for many centuries.

References

External links

Local site, with photoWhite Cliffs CountyDetails of registration as a listed buildingThe St Edmund of Abingdon Memorial Trust
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edmund's Chapel Churches in Dover, Kent Christianity in medieval England 1253 establishments in England Grade II* listed churches in Kent English churches dedicated to St Edmund