Chapel Of St John The Baptist Supporting Retaining Wall And Attached Boundary Walls

Chapel of St John the Baptist, Supporting Retaining Wall and Attached Boundary Walls

Built in 1897, this chapel was designed by E. Guy Dawber for Mrs Louisa Sophia Harris. It stands in a picturesque setting on the side of the cliff in Matlock Bath, accessed off St John's Road near Cliff Road.

The chapel is constructed of massive rubble carboniferous limestone with ashlar gritstone dressings. The lower part of the supporting retaining wall is of particularly massive construction. The roof is laid with stone slates in diminishing courses, though the south slope has been replaced with concrete tiles. A single moulded ashlar coped gable to the east features kneelers and finials.

The building is a single cell chapel with a small square bell turret projecting from the south elevation, beneath a lead-covered pyramidal roof. The west entrance front contains a central pointed-arched doorway in moulded ashlar surround, protected by a wooden gabled porch that continues to the north and down the north side of the chapel as a lean-to covered walk. Above the porch is a three-light chamfered mullion window, and in the gable above sits a tiny keyhole lancet. The west façade has two four-light chamfered mullion windows, each light with a roundhead, followed by a flat buttress rising to the bell turret. Beyond this is an oriel window with four chamfered mullioned lights. The east gable contains a four-light reticulated tracery pointed-arched window.

The interior is exceptionally fine, with many Arts and Crafts fittings. These include a Perpendicular style rood screen by E. Guy Dawber, decorated ceiling plasterwork by George Bankart, a painted wooden altarpiece by John Cooke, and stained glass in the east window by Louis Davis. Other fittings include a pulpit, pews, choir stalls (probably also by Dawber), and pendant light fittings.

The chapel, which was never consecrated, is the only church designed by Dawber and represents an important example of his ecclesiastical work in the Early English Gothic style.

The building stands upon and is flanked by a massive retaining wall constructed of roughly coursed limestone blocks. This retaining wall extends 45 metres to the west and incorporates a stone water trough. To the east, it extends 10 metres and forms a boundary wall enclosing the approach to the chapel. Attached boundary walls complete the ensemble, with an integral stone trough incorporated into the structure.