Chapel of St Mary Magdalen

Chapel of St Mary Magdalen

An Anglican chapel of ease situated off the Fosse Way, the main southern approach to the city. This chapel was a medieval foundation associated with the Abbey in the reign of Henry I (1100-1135). Leland described the area around 1536 as "a rocky hill, full of fair springs of water, and on this hill is set a fair street, as a suburb to the city, and in this street is a chapel of St Mary Magdalen". The chapel underwent major rebuilding around 1495 under Prior Cantlow's re-foundation. A tower was added in 1823, possibly by H E Goodridge, though the tower arch was not cut through until 1889. The east end was restructured following bomb damage in 1942. The church was ruinous until its rebuilding in the 1820s.

The chapel is built of limestone ashlar or rubble with a slate roof. The plan comprises a narrow nave, south porch, north-west vestry, west tower, and wider chancel and sanctuary.

The west tower is not square and rises in three stages with a crenellated parapet and obelisk pinnacles. The west front has a two-light louvered stone window to the bell stage, positioned above two closely spaced stringcourses, with a two-light Perpendicular-style window below. The south front is similar but lacks the lower window. The nave features a small cusped window above the porch, and three and two-light square-headed windows with cusped lights and stopped drips. The chancel wall is rebuilt ashlar set forward with a cornice, blocking course, and parapet above a three-light window matching those of the nave. A deep projecting porch with a coped and shouldered gable occupies the left-hand end. Above it is a 15th-century image niche, and the door beneath has a four-centred head with shoulders displaying deep saddleback copings. Main gables are coped, with a cross-saddle to the east end and two prominent ridge ventilators. The east end has a three-light Perpendicular window set in a deep casement mould with a drip-mould; the gable end is shouldered where the sidewalls extend beyond the line of the nave. The north side of the nave has a lean-to vestry below small one and two-light cusped openings, and two three-light windows with cusped heads, plus a three-light window to the chancel.

The porch interior contains an inner door with moulded surround and flat four-centred head with spandrels, and a medieval image niche. Each side has a low stone bench, and the floor is laid in Minton tile. An east wall stone plaque records Prior Cantlow's rebuilding of the church and a request for prayers for his soul; a carved corbel-head is also present. The nave is plastered with a plastered barrel vault to a cove cornice, and the rere-arches are slightly peaked with thin mould surround. Medieval image niches are built at window height—three to the north and two to the south. The floor is carpeted with wood block in the pew areas. High windows suggest there may have been a west gallery. The tower arch is narrow with broad chamfers, and the chancel arch is carried on responds. Two steps in polished conglomerate lead to the wider chancel, which has a Minton tile floor and a flat ceiling on each side of a central barrel. The altar table stands on two further steps and features a dark oak reredos below the window with a deep casement mould, containing glass of around 1950 by Michael Farr Bell.

The chapel contains a round bowl font removed from Huish parish church in 1980, late 19th-century pews, a pulpit, a reading desk, and a 19th-century reed organ. A fine mannerist Baroque wall tablet commemorates Ann Nicholas, died 1662, with an inscription painted in white on black, a broken reversed scroll pediment, and high relief carvings. Three other tablets are positioned on the nave north wall. Simple war memorial panels were removed from the redundant church of St Mark, Lyncombe.

The church was associated with a leprosy hospital from early times; this role was transferred to an asylum for children in the 19th century.