Brockhampton Chapel

BROCKHAMPTON CHAPEL

Built around 1799 by George Byfield and consecrated around 1810-11, Brockhampton Chapel stands in the grounds of Brockhampton Park in Herefordshire. It was commissioned by John Barneby to replace a small Norman church at Lower Brockhampton. The chapel was designed by George Byfield (c.1756-1813), an architect better known for country houses and prison buildings, for whom Brockhampton remains his only church. It was one of the earliest Gothic-revival churches built in Herefordshire. The glass for the original east window was made by William Raphael Eginton (1778-1834) of Birmingham.

The chapel is constructed of local grey sandstone ashlar with a slate roof. It has a compact Georgian Gothic character, comprising a nave and chancel under a single roof with an embraced west tower. The design features an embattled parapet and gables to the main elevations. Tall gabled buttresses rise above the parapet, positioned diagonally at the angles. The west entrance is a Gothic-panelled door beneath a blind-tracery overlight and square label, with a coat of arms in Coade stone above and a small wheel window. The tower rises from polygonal clasping buttresses and is topped with an embattled parapet and tall pinnacles. Its two-light bell openings are recessed in square-headed frames with Y-tracery and louvres. The south wall contains five bays of tall two-light windows with simple Perpendicular tracery. The chancel has a matching three-light east window. The north side is plain, with blind windows.

The interior consists of a unified nave and chancel space of three plus one bays. An entrance vestibule beneath the tower is flanked by a vestry and gallery stairs. A segmental plaster ceiling has thin ribs forming quadripartite bays on a moulded cornice with cherubs. Window reveals feature triple continuous roll mouldings. The stone-paved floor is integral with the original construction. A west gallery is reached by a stone dog-leg stair with iron balusters and wooden handrail. A simple marble chimneypiece sits in the vestry.

The chapel retains many original fittings. Trefoil-arched panelling appears consistently on doors, doorway reveals, pews, pulpit and reading desk. The west gallery is carried on an arcade of three bays with clustered wooden shafts and wide four-centred arches featuring quatrefoils in the spandrels. The gallery front has a quatrefoil frieze and blind trefoil-arched panelling. Box pews are arranged in collegiate style with two tiers of pews and further tiers facing east beneath the gallery. The pews have additional hinged front benches. A polygonal pulpit with Gothic-balustrade steps and a reading desk on the north side form an integral part of the pews. Communion rails feature open Gothic arcading. An octagonal stone font with a marble stem and lavish foliage capital completes the original scheme.

The chancel sanctuary was altered in 1888-91. A mosaic reredos and dado made by Powell's of London was installed, incorporating a central icon copied from the monastery at Sergiyev Posad in Russia. Original wrought-iron lamp brackets remain on the walls.

The chapel contains several high-quality wall monuments: one to Edmund Higginson (died 1798) showing a mourner holding a portrait medallion; one to Lydia Buckley (died 1812) with a mourning female figure, by J. Bacon Junior; and one to John Barneby (died 1817) with a female mourner standing by a sarcophagus, also by Bacon.

Of the original three-light stained-glass east window by William Eginton, two lights were removed in 1888 and placed in their original frame within the reveals of the south-west window. They show the Transfiguration. Other windows are mainly by Powell's of Whitefriars in understated autumnal colours. The east window of 1888 was designed by Mary Lowndes (1857-1929) in the Raphaelesque manner and shows Faith, Hope and Charity with figures of the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene and Cecilia. Two south windows of 1891 show four Virtues, designed by Ada Currey (1852-1913). The south-east window, of bright red, blue and green, shows Christ blessing children and dates to after 1857.