Chapel of St Mary at Arley Hall

Chapel of St Mary at Arley Hall

This is a chapel built in 1845 by architect Anthony Salvin, with a north aisle added in 1856-1857 by George Street. It is constructed of ashlar and rendered brick with slate and tile roofs. The building comprises a nave with north aisle, bell turret, porch and chancel, designed in the Decorated Gothic style.

The south front displays a four-bay nave with a two-light pointed mullioned window to the left, topped by a hood mould. To the right is a projecting two-storey bay, which originally formed connecting passages to the house and now has a rendered south wall. The west wall is plain ashlar. On the east front, a canted enriched oriel is supported on a buttress carved with beasts, with small lancets on either side featuring cusped tracery. Between the projection and the main nave body stands an octagonal bell turret with one lancet opening to its south-east wall. The bell stage has eight lancet openings with hood moulds and end-stops, beneath a red tiled double-pitch roof.

The nave body to the right has a moulded base shared with the chancel and east end. Two two-light mullioned windows with varied tracery are flanked by buttresses with off-sets and gargoyles above. An angled buttress at the east end of the nave contains a niche with a statue of the Virgin and Child on a column, a moulded canopy, and a gargoyle above. A pierced parapet runs along the nave and chancel.

The chancel projects two bays set back slightly from the nave, with two two-light Decorated windows. A buttress between them has off-sets, a gargoyle spout, and a crocketed pinnacle above. A moulded lead rain water head and down pipe are fitted to the chancel, and a priests door with wrought iron decoration is positioned below the left-hand window.

The north front belongs to Street's addition and features plainer Decorated tracery with plain buttresses between the windows. The right-hand window has a doorway beneath it with carved stonework to the spandrels and wrought iron work to the door. The left-hand nave window is a double Decorated design of two by two lights. To the left, the vestry has one triple lancet window. The east front has a late Decorated window to the vestry and a window of approximately 1890 to the chancel. The west wall is now rendered to its lower part where it originally joined the house, with stonework to the gable and a traceried window.

Interior: The south wall of the nave has a string course with ball flower end-stops. A two-storey moulded arch marks the original entrance from the house. Wooden moulded panelling decorates the gallery front. The north arcade comprises three bays with ovolo-moulded colonettes by Street, featuring high-relief capitals of foliage. The nave roof is supported on wooden angle corbels holding shields, with arch braces tied by a longitudinal beam. Three double-corona chandeliers with candelabra, and a lectern, are by Singer of Frome, Somerset, dated to approximately 1880. The walls were originally plastered but the brickwork is now exposed.

The north aisle has stone corbels supporting a lean-to roof with pierced spandrels. An iron screen by Street is richly painted with polychromatic decoration, as is the iron radiator cover in the style of a 13th-century tomb with lily finials.

The font is a richly carved stone bowl with eight panels carved with foliage designs and the Agnus Dei, supported on a cluster of marble columns. The chancel has a piscina and triple sedilia. The east window contains stained glass by Kempe, dated 1895.