This chapel is of exceptional importance on both historic and architectural grounds. The exterior is typically modest for a Catholic chapel of its time, but the interior is a remarkably complete survival and its ensemble of box pews, gallery and rich Gothick decoration is of the highest quality. 

The Crathorne family maintained the Catholic faith after the Reformation and, no doubt, Mass was held in the manor house. It is sometimes said (e.g. in the list description) that a (or this) chapel was built in 1777 but this is challenged in Peter Markey’s Brief History (c.1977). He cites a document of 1816 stating that the then chapel was ‘formerly a Cowhouse’ but there seems no firm evidence for the 1777 dating and this is probably a self-perpetuating tradition. Markey cites documents that indicate the chapel was complete by the end of 1821 and suggests it was probably the result of efforts by the ‘resident Missioner’, Fr George Corless, using funds from a donation by Ralph Crathorne in 1742 to endow the Crathorne mission. The chapel is attached to the former priest’s house, which dates from the eighteenth century (now in separate ownership). After much neglect the chapel was restored from the mid-1960s.

Description

The list description (below) is sparse but lists the essential features. The following additional points/corrections are worth noting:

• There is one broad west gallery, not ‘galleries’.
• The porch, following Markey (p.7) seems to be post-war, not ‘C19’.
• The decorative treatment of the east end is quite notable: triple hanging arches at the nave/sanctuary junction; the pair of concave sided canopies over niches either side of the altar; and the decorative treatment of the reredos.

List description

II*

Roman Catholic 1777 built for the Crathorne family, Roman Catholics and former lords of the manor. Local handmade light red brick, English garden wall bond. Welsh slate roof with stone gable coping, bracketed eaves. One tall storey, three windows, Tudor arched and roll-moulded, with interlaced glazing bars and cill band. C19 south-west porch in similar style. Gothick interior with galleries and box pews.

*Entry amended by AHP 18.03.2023*

Heritage Details