Urishay Castle Chapel is a redundant chapel to the north of

Urishay Castle Urishay constitutes the remains of a castle, 16th century chapel and 17th century house located about 2.5 km west of Peterchurch in Herefordshire, England. History of the site The first part of the name Urishay is derived from "Ulric" or ...

, some west of the village of

Peterchurch Peterchurch is a village and civil parish in the Golden Valley, Herefordshire, England. The countryside around is spectacular, with views of the Black Mountains but the village itself is architecturally undistinguished, except for the award-winn ...

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 Monmouthshire ...

, England (). It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England 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 Friends of Friendless Churches. The chapel is a

Scheduled 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 and d ...

, and is on the Heritage at Risk Register.

History

The

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

is built in the bailey of Urishay Castle. It is the earliest purpose-built chapel to a castle in Herefordshire. The

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 ...

dates from the early 12th century, and an extension forming the

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 ...

was added in the late 12th century. Alterations were made to the chapel in the 16th and 17th centuries. In later years it had a number of uses, including being a blacksmith's forge,a carpenter's shop and a dog kennel. By the early part of the 20th century it was a ruin. Following a report by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings some work was carried out and it was re-dedicated for public worship on 29 June 1914. However it was closed again in 1923. By 1949 it was again a ruin, with holes in the roof and leaning walls. In 1978 it 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 charity the Friends of Friendless Churches, its freehold being dated 26 July 1978. The charity carried out a programme of repairs which were completed in 2009, including rebuilding much of the walling, but the building is still only partly roofed. In 1914 traces of wall paintings were reported, but these have completely disappeared. In the 1980s evidence was found of a number of infant burials, although there have never been any adult burials in the chapel.

Architecture

The chapel is constructed in stone rubble with a stone slate roof. It is in two cells, one forming the nave and the other the chancel, each of which is of similar width; the chapel is otherwise featureless. A rendered concrete block wall dating from the 1980s stands about to the west of the chancel arch. In the north wall of the chancel are two doors, one added in the 20th century, and the other being an original priest's door with a semicircular head. In the north wall are two windows, one being small with a semicircular head, and the other larger with a square head, probably dating from the 17th century. The east wall contains a window with a four-centred head, probably from the early 16th century. In the north wall of the nave is a narrow square-headed window, and in the south wall is a window with a pointed head and a doorway with a semicircular head. The west wall contains two single-light windows at different heights. The fittings still present in the interior are an altar slab with five

consecration Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service. The word ''consecration'' literally means "association with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different grou ...

crosses, and the base of a 19th-century

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peterchurch, Urishay Castle Grade II* listed churches in Herefordshire 12th-century church buildings in England Churches preserved by the Friends of Friendless Churches Scheduled monuments in Herefordshire