Chester College Chapel

Chester College Chapel, built between 1844 and 1847, was designed by J.E. Gregan of Manchester. It is a hall-chapel constructed of coursed red sandstone with a graded Westmorland green slate roof, executed in the geometrical style. A prominent feature is the south-west bell-turret and the north and south porches.

The west front includes the north porch, featuring a shoulder-arched doorway. Above it is a four-light window with intricate tracery including two quatrefoils, supporting a sexfoil, and a trefoil in the gable. A cross finial tops the gable, and a slender octagonal turret rises alongside, with loops providing access to a spiral staircase. The turret has arched bell openings on each face, surmounted by a heavily crocketed spire. The south side has a gabled porch in the western bay, with oak double doors on ornate hinges, shafts with stiff-leaf capitals, and a hood mould to the archway supported by head corbels. Diagonal buttresses and an apex cross are also present. The eastern section of the south side has five bays, each featuring two-light windows. The east end displays a five-light geometrical window and a gable cross. The north side mirrors the south, with the college building adjoined to the remaining bays, linked by a north porch connecting to the western bay.

The chapel interior served Chester, the earliest Church of England College for training schoolteachers, and the students actively contributed to the furnishings. These include a well-designed east window. Stalls face each other, separated by an oak dado of traceried panelling with a rail inscribed with a series of biblical texts. A tiered west gallery, accessible via the turret staircase, has a carved openwork front. The chapel floor is tiled with encaustic tiles. A traceried, three-gabled organ case, added in 1856 by Rev. T.N. Hutchinson, is a significant feature. Memorials include a head in circlet dedicated to Rev. Arthur Rigg, Principal for 30 years from the college's inception in 1839, by J.S. Westmacott; a similar head of Dean Bellers (1854-1925), Diocesan Chancellor; a plaque for Rev. J.M. Critchley, Vice Principal (1864-9) and Principal (1869-85); and a memorial to students killed in action during 1914-19. Oil paintings hang on the south side of the gallery – a work after Reni depicting Michael casting out Satan – and on the north side, a depiction of the Deposition after Rubens, given by the first Duke of Westminster in 1883.