Ruins Of St Lawrence'S Chapel

The ruins of St Lawrence's Chapel are located in the deserted medieval village of Barforth. The chapel dates from the 12th century and was enlarged and remodeled in the 13th century. The nave was converted into a priest's house in the early 16th century. The structure is built of rubble, with some coursed sections, and features ashlar dressings. It has a rectangular plan.

The south elevation is divided into two sections. The left part, from the 12th century, contains the remains of an original round-arched door to the left of a 13th-century doorway, which has an arch of two orders; the outer order is hollow-chamfered on jamb shafts that still have their moulded caps and bases. This doorway is now blocked, with a 16th-century or later two-light window also inserted and blocked. To the right, there are remains of a narrow 12th-century loop and a 16th-century square chamfered window. The right section of the wall, dating from the 13th century, has a chamfered plinth, a blocked trefoil-headed priest's door, and four lancet windows. The east end features stepped clasping buttresses and a small central buttress under three stepped lancets with a linked hoodmould. The north elevation shows, from east to west, a lancet, a round-arched low-side window, a chamfered doorway, a buttress with chamfered angles, and a square 16th-century window; the western part of this wall has largely fallen. The west end has three stepped buttresses, with the shorter central buttress supporting a tall lancet that is subdivided to serve the floors of the 16th-century priest's house.

Inside, the eastern lancets have low sills to support a reredos. There is a rebated trefoil-headed aumbry on the north side. The lower part of the 16th-century cross wall shows the jambs of a doorway, remains of a fireplace, and a squint from the house to the chapel.

Historically, the chapel may have served a hospital or a small collegiate establishment. The priest's house functioned as a farmhouse until the 18th century; its north wall collapsed in the mid-19th century, and the cross wall fell in the 1960s.