Woodhey Chapel is a Grade I

listed Listed may refer to: * Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm * Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic * Endangered species in biology * Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...

private chapel off Woodhey Lane near

Faddiley Faddiley is a small village (at SJ 590 530) and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The village is located 4 miles to the west of Nantwich. The parish also includes the small set ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

, England. The listing describes the building as 'A handsome and intact example of a chapel from a period when few were built'. The chapel, which is now disused, stands in fields near the site of the demolished Woodhey Hall. Its west end is connected to buildings of the former hall by a causeway which is raised by about .

History

In a will dated 1537 is a possible reference to a domestic chapel at Woodhey. The present chapel dates from about 1700 and was built by Lady Wilbraham, the widow of the Thomas Wilbraham, the last baronet of Woodhey. The chapel was restored in 1926.

Architecture

Exterior

The chapel is constructed in red brick with stone trimmings and has a

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

roof. It was built against an early 17th-century stone

loggia In architecture, a loggia ( , usually , ) is a covered exterior gallery or corridor, usually on an upper level, but sometimes on the ground level of a building. The outer wall is open to the elements, usually supported by a series of columns ...

which forms its west face. The loggia provided an entrance for the Wilbraham family to the west gallery of the chapel. It consists of an arcade of three segmental

archivolt An archivolt (or voussure) is an ornamental moulding or band following the curve on the underside of an arch. It is composed of bands of ornamental mouldings (or other architectural elements) surrounding an arched opening, corresponding to the ...

s supported by

Doric Doric may refer to: * Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece ** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians * Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture * Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode * Doric dialect (Scotland) * Doric ...

columns. Above these is a

strapwork In the history of art and design, strapwork is the use of stylised representations in ornament of ribbon-like forms. These may loosely imitate leather straps, parchment or metal cut into elaborate shapes, with piercings, and often interwoven in ...

decorated

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 ...

and an overhanging moulded

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 ...

. On each side are steps leading from the causeway to ground level. Richards describes the loggia as "perhaps the most original example in the whole of Cheshire". The north elevation of the body of the chapel has a door which gave tenants access to the ground floor of the chapel. Above this is a circular window. To the east are three round-headed windows. The south elevation is similar with a dummy door. On the east elevation are two similar windows between which is an ornate framework of stone which contains a weathered lozenge and tablet.

Interior

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 ...

is in three

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...

with oak panelling and a single-bay gallery. At the east end between the windows is a

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

reredos A reredos ( , , ) is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a church. It often includes religious images. The term ''reredos'' may also be used for similar structures, if elaborate, in secular architecture, for ex ...

inscribed with the

Ten Commandments The Ten Commandments (Biblical Hebrew עשרת הדברים \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים, ''aséret ha-dvarím'', lit. The Decalogue, The Ten Words, cf. Mishnaic Hebrew עשרת הדיברות \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְ� ...

in gold. Below this is a panelled oak

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...

carved with fruit and leaf motifs and a moulded

. The floor of the chancel is paved with

tessellated A tessellation or tiling is the covering of a surface, often a plane, using one or more geometric shapes, called ''tiles'', with no overlaps and no gaps. In mathematics, tessellation can be generalized to higher dimensions and a variety of ge ...

squares of black and white

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 ...

while the rest of the floor is tiled. The gallery was heated by two fireplaces at the corners of the walls. In the gallery are pews on each side of the doorway. At the front of the gallery the oak screen has grilles of split cane. The ceiling of the chapel is plastered and formed into thirty panels by slender timber mouldings.

External features

The retaining wall of the causeway leading to the west end of the chapel dates from the early 18th century and is composed of coursed red

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) ...

. It is listed at Grade II. The chapel is located in a walled enclosure which was formerly a garden. The walls date from the early 17th century and are built from red brick with a stone dressing. They are also Grade II listed.

Woodhey Cross

Around 500 m to the east of the chapel at a junction on Woodhey Lane () is a late medieval red sandstone cross known as Woodhey Cross. It is Grade II* listed.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Faddiley, Woodhey Chapel Churches completed in 1700 Buildings and structures in Cheshire Grade I listed churches in Cheshire Neoclassical architecture in England Chapels in England Former churches in Cheshire 1700 establishments in England Neoclassical church buildings in England