Chapel of the Immaculate Conception, Bocking

Chapel of the Immaculate Conception, Bocking

This convent chapel and sacristy was built in 1898 for the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception to designs by John Francis Bentley. It is constructed of red brick with stone dressings and plain tiled roofs, and stands at the north-western corner of the convent.

The chapel is oriented to face west and comprises an antechapel, choir and sanctuary, with a single transept to the south of the sanctuary. A sacristy runs parallel to the choir and connects to the transept. The transept, originally reserved for lay people, can be accessed from outside via an arcaded porch and contains a single confessional.

The principal elevation faces Broad Road. It comprises the west gable of the chapel to the north, separated from the external elevation of the confessional and arcaded porch by an octagonal bell turret. The turret ends in a cupola with four stone tracery openings at the cardinal points and eight grotesque heads carved at the corners. Above this sits a small lead-covered dome and finial. The chapel gable features two lancet windows with paired daggers in the tracery at their heads, and beneath each one a vertical slit window lighting a passage behind the altar. Four bands of masonry run across the brick elevation, which terminates in a plain stone cross at the ridge line. Mitred brickwork turns the northern corner onto Convent Lane.

The Convent Lane elevation is six bays long, each expressing its function. To the west the sanctuary window has two cusped lancets divided horizontally by a transom. Adjacent to this is a small projecting gable suggesting a transept, identifying the Lady Altar. It has chamfered corners with carved corbels and stone kneelers above them, and a pair of cusped lancets at the centre in an arched stone surround. On the other side of the Lady Chapel are three triple-light stone windows lighting the choir, each topped with a cusped and depressed ogee. The final narrow bay at the east end has a lower level group of three ogee-headed windows, the tallest in the middle, lighting the antechapel, and above it a larger window for the organ loft: two cusped lancets beneath a quatrefoil oculus in an arched stone surround.

The east elevation faces a small courtyard and features two lancet windows with paired daggers in the tracery at their heads. The southernmost window is cut off by a stair turret to the organ loft. A smaller window is placed below the northernmost lancet at the level of the antechapel.

Internally, the antechapel at the east end is separated from the choir by a carved oak screen with iron railings. Above this is the organ loft with an iron balustrade. These and all the fittings were designed by Bentley himself. The choir comprises three bays with fitted stalls to the north, south and east, and free-standing benches in the centre on parquet flooring. The oak stalls are of high quality and are fitted with hinged uncarved misericords and lobed projections on the arm rests. Fine oak wainscot panels cover the walls above the seat backs beneath projecting oak coving and a continuous castellated beam running beneath the clerestory.

The sanctuary is raised up two steps and floored in stone inlaid with encaustic tiles. At the centre is a limestone altar introduced after the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council, behind which hangs a sanctuary lamp. The high altar, reredos and tabernacle stand two further steps up. The altar is made of Hopton Wood stone and Lancashire marble with a frontal of opus sectile featuring seraphim holding scrolls amongst golden stars in a blue background. Behind and above it is an alabaster reredos with vertical panels of Greek Cipollino marble. At the centre of the reredos is the tabernacle with a gothic canopy above it. To the north of the sanctuary, within an arched recess facing the transept, is the Lady Altar of oak with gothic detailing and a painted oak predella. Bentley designed this altar in 1901, after the completion of the chapel, and it was his final contribution to the convent.

Behind the high altar a passageway with a pulpitum above provides access to the bell turret. Within the bell turret a plaque records the names of the bell's donors.

The transept is divided by an arcade of two chamfered arches supported by an octagonal column between them. The south side has two arched windows of three lights in Decorated Gothic tracery and a doorway to the sacristy with a moulded stone lintel. To the north there is a small clerestory of three sexfoil occuli. Beneath it to the left is the lay entrance. To the right is an arched recess containing the leaded glazed doors of the confessional, plain but unaltered inside. Seating in the transept comprises rows of unfixed oak benches on parquet flooring.

The sacristy retains its parquet floors, joinery, a window onto an enclosed courtyard and a small fireplace with a stone surround.

Throughout, the chapel has wagon vaulted timber roofs with white painted ribs. The sanctuary roof is the most complex with interlacing ribs and gold bosses, while the choir and transept have close parallel transverse ribs.

The chapel features a number of stained glass windows added after completion, many in dedication to individuals associated with the convent. The paired lancets above the high altar were dedicated in 1907 and show the Annunciation, representing the dedication of the convent, with further scenes of the Virgin Mary and Christ in the north sanctuary window by Shrigley and Hunt. The Lady Altar window shows St Elizabeth of Hungary and St Francis of Assisi by Jones and Willis, dating to around 1905. Four lights of the choir windows also feature stained glass depicting various saints and Christ as the Good Shepherd.