St Mary's Bridge Chapel is a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

chapel in

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...

, England. It is a

bridge chapel A bridge chapel is a small place of Christian worship, built either on, or immediately adjacent to, a road bridge; they were commonly established during pre-Reformation medieval era in Europe. Although sometimes built on land at the very start o ...

, one of only a small number of medieval age that survive in England. It is a Grade I listed building.

The Chapel of St Mary on the Bridge, commonly known as the Bridge Chapel, was built on the first arch of a medieval bridge over the River Derwent; the

springing Springing as a nautical term refers to global (vertical) resonant hull girder vibrations induced by continuous wave loading. When the global hull girder vibrations occur as a result of an impulsive wave loading, for example a wave slam at the bow ...

of the arch can be seen below the east wall. It now stands beside the 18th-century St Mary's Bridge, which replaced the medieval bridge. The precise date when the first bridge chapel came into existence is uncertain, but it is likely to have been the late 13th or early 14th century. The south elevation has a timber-framed gable over a 15th-century stone-mullioned window with modern leaded lights. The original building was of stone, but some restoration is in brick with tile slips. The interior is small and aisleless. The north wall has a lychnoscope. It is one of only six bridge chapels left in England. The building has had other uses including as a prison and a carpenter's workshop. It was restored in 1930 in memory of

Alfred Seale Haslam Sir Alfred Seale Haslam (27 October 1844 – 13 January 1927) was an English engineer who was Mayor of Derby from 1890 to 1891, three times Mayor of Newcastle-under-Lyme, and Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for ...

, a former Mayor of Derby, using funds from his family. An incised slate tablet on the north side records the names of three Catholic priests,

Nicholas Garlick Nicholas Garlick (c. 1555 – 24 July 1588) was an English Catholic priest, martyred in Derby in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Early life He was born around 1555, near Dinting in Glossop, within the county of Derby. In January 1575 he m ...

Robert Ludlum Robert Ludlum (May 25, 1927 – March 12, 2001) was an American author of 27 thriller novels, best known as the creator of Jason Bourne from the original '' The Bourne Trilogy'' series. The number of copies of his books in print is estimated b ...

and Richard Simpson, who on 24 July 1588 were martyred near here. Although it remains in Anglican ownership, the building is also used for worship by Lutheran ( Latvian and German-speaking) and

Russian Orthodox Russian Orthodoxy (russian: Русское православие) is the body of several churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, whose liturgy is or was traditionally conducted in Church Slavonic language. Most ...

congregations. The adjacent St Mary's Bridge (1788–93, designed by Thomas Harrison) is a Grade II* listed structure and scheduled monument, and Bridge Chapel House (or St Mary's Bridge House, No. 86) is listed at Grade II.

References

{{coord, 52.9271, -1.4758, region:GB-DBY_type:landmark, display=title Churches in Derby Grade I listed buildings in Derby Derby, St Mary's Bridge Chapel Derby, St Mary's Bridge Chapel

See also

References