Chapel Of Mostyn House School

The Chapel of Mostyn House School, in Parkgate Village, Neston, was built in 1895. Designed by A.G. Grenfell, the school’s Headmaster, it was created for the Mostyn House School, with interior fittings originally designed by Frederick Fraser of Warrington. The building is constructed of Ruabon red brick in an English garden-wall bond, with terracotta window dressings and eaves friezes. It has a red tile roof with ridge cresting, stone coping to the west gable, and a finial on the east end.

The chapel’s design is articulated with two-stage gabled buttresses and an encircling eaves frieze and deep moulded cornice. The windows are predominantly of two cinquefoiled lights with quatrefoils in the head, beneath two-centred hoodmoulds. The apse has three similar lights with traceried heads and hoodmoulds. A 20th-century porch extension links to the school and provides access via a two-centred north doorway. A bellcote atop the west porch is pierced by a trefoiled opening on each face and supported by a square pedestal with two-light windows to three sides, culminating in an octagonal spirelet with finial. A memorial to the 1914-1918 War, featuring an exposed iron girder bellframe supporting a 31-bell carillon, is positioned to the west.

Inside, the chapel’s five-bay nave and chancel are articulated by tall, slim shafts rising from corbels, supporting a hammer beam roof. The apse, nave and west end are panelled, with the apse incorporating four canopied niches. The west end features a panelled door within a moulded two-centred arch, flanked by lancet windows and a glazed cinquefoil in the gable apex. The hammer beam roof carries armorial shields at the beam ends, and the ceiling is of raking boards. Original fittings include an altar table, chaplain’s and reader’s desks, a communion rail, and benches by F Fraser. Later seating features traceried pew ends and slender wrought iron rails incorporating various bosses. Brass plates identifying former students adorn the dado panelling and backs of the seats. A lectern by H Hems of Exeter and a wall-mounted pipe organ with crocketed cresting occupy the west end. Stained glass windows in the apse, depicting the Seven Virtues, were designed by Morton and Co. of Liverpool, based on a design by Sir J Reynolds for New College, Oxford. Stained glass windows dating from 1897 to 1921, designed by Robert Anning Bell, are found in the north and south windows, with memorial windows in the west end lancets.