Chapel Attached To South West Corner Of Hesley Hall

The chapel attached to the south-west corner of Hesley Hall was built in 1891 for Benjamin Ingham Whitaker in memory of Eliza Sophia Whitaker, who died in 1885. It is constructed of red brick with ashlar dressings and features a graduated slate roof. The building consists of a small nave and an apsidal chancel, which are combined into one space, along with a south porch and a bellcote, all designed in the Gothic Revival style with Perpendicular influences.

The chapel has a chamfered plinth and a moulded band. The porch on the left features a moulded Tudor arch with carved spandrels and a hoodmould. Below an embattled parapet, there is a string course with a carved centre panel and a ball finial. The nave window on the right consists of six round-headed lights with a central king mullion and a plain panel-traceried head beneath a moulded four-centred arch, complete with a hoodmould and finial. An offset buttress at the division between the nave and chancel supports a corbelled octagonal bell turret, which has a single-light opening on each side and panels inscribed with 'BIW/1891/CLW', topped by a crocketed ashlar spirelet with a finial.

At the west end, there is an apsidal baptistry projection beneath a three-light window with a hoodmould and a gable slit, along with ashlar gable copings featuring ball finials. The chancel includes a sill band beneath a square-headed south window with two ogee lights and a hoodmould, as well as a small three-light east window with apron panels. The chancel also has a moulded cornice beneath an oversailing embattled parapet.

Inside, the nave contains a north organ recess with a Tudor arch, and on the west wall, there is a carved frieze dedicated to E. S. Whitaker. The nave has a barrel-vaulted roof. The chancel features aumbry, sedilia, and piscina recesses around the apse. Most fittings are original, including a panelled dado, a 1910 rood beam with a crucifixion, and a carved reredos. There are fine wall paintings in the baptistry and on the walls and ceiling of the chancel, along with stained glass in the baptistry (the font has been removed). An alabaster wall monument on the north wall of the nave commemorates B. I. Whitaker, who lived at Hesley from 1861 to 1922, and his wife Caroline, who died in 1941.