Bolton Chapel

Bolton Chapel is an Anglican chapel of ease, originally built in the 12th century with a chancel arch, and with chancel walls likely dating from the medieval period. The nave and north transept were constructed in the early 19th century, and the south porch and vestry around 1868. The chancel is built of coursed rubble with later ashlar dressings, while the 19th-century sections are of tooled stone with ashlar dressings, except for the rock-faced south porch. The roof is Welsh slate, with three bands of green fishscale slates on the south slope of the chancel. The chapel has an aisleless four-bay nave, a south porch, a north transept and a small chancel, with a north vestry attached. The style is Romanesque.

The nave has four round-arched single-light windows with double-chamfered surrounds on the south side, two similar windows on the north side, and a wider round-arched west window. A small arched bellcote sits on the west gable. The south porch features studded double doors under a trefoil arch, and a cross finial. Inside the porch are panelled double doors with a metal-latticed fanlight, leading to a double-chamfered arch on moulded imposts. The north transept has a triplet of round-headed lights. A similar stepped triplet with a circular light sits above in the east end of the chancel, and a single-light window is located on the south side to the east of an earlier blocked window. A ring cross finial is positioned on the east gable.

The interior is plastered. The semicircular chancel arch is stepped towards the nave and is supported by worn imposts that run as a band along the east wall of the nave. A three-bay screen of moulded arches on slender round piers with scalloped caps separates the north transept. The roof features collar-beam trusses with upper king posts, the ones in the transept and chancel featuring arch braces on moulded corbels with pierced infill and wallplates. Boarding between the rafters is painted blue with gold stars. A small font with a round shaft and moulded bowl, dated 1732, is located in the north transept. A more elaborate 19th-century Romanesque font is in the nave. Further features include wrought-iron altar rails and Minton tiles in the sanctuary, a coat of arms of Martha Burrill, who died in 1700, on the south side of the chancel, and a similar painted coat of arms on the north side of the nave. Several 18th and 19th-century wall tablets are present including a monument to the Forster family (1790-1809) signed by R. Blore, and a 1864 tablet to Lewis de Crespigny Buckle, who perished at sea on the S.S. Nemesis.