Borbach Chantry

Borbach Chantry is a chapel of grade I importance, now administered by the Redundant Churches Fund. It was founded in 1333 for Robert de Borbach.

The building is constructed of flint with limestone dressings and a tiled roof. It consists of a single cell and was formerly attached to the south side of the parish church by a 2-bay arcade, which was removed in 1868. At that time the arcade was walled up and a new south porch was added to the chapel.

The windows are of two types: the north window is a 2-light ogee-headed opening with quatrefoiled heads and a hoodmould, while the east and west ends have rectangular lights. The porch has a simply chamfered door and a timber-framed gable with weatherboarding. The inner door is a medieval cross-boarded door with hollow moulded cover pieces, and bears a consecration cross on its jamb.

Inside, the walls are plastered and cement painted, extending upward over the ashlars of the 14th-century trussed rafter roof. A single arch of the former arcade remains, now blocked with a window inserted. The floor is tiled and flagged, with a black and white chequer pattern at the east end. Set across the east end are 17th-century wrought iron railings with alternating javelin-headed and twisted bars.

From the 17th century onward the chapel became a chapel of the Evelyn family and contains a remarkable collection of monuments. On the south wall is a wall tomb of the 14th century, comprising a cinquefoiled recess with a wide ogee hood, possibly the tomb of the founder. The north side displays a wall tomb of 1625, featuring an alabaster chest with a broken double pediment resting on red marble Corinthian columns. Within two niches supported by scrolled corbels at the centre are life-sized figures of Sir John Evelyn and his wife, facing across a fald stool supporting open breviaries. Demi-relief figures of eleven kneeling children appear on the chest, with draped and crested arms above.

On the south wall is an alabaster aedicule with demi-columns supporting a broken segmental pediment and containing arms. Draped niches hold a white marble bust of Elizabeth Tirell (née Evelyn), who died in childbirth in 1629.

The east wall displays an important large monument of 1669, executed in veined white marble and painted limestone. A deep niche over a table is flanked by painted Ionic columns on pedestals supporting an entablature with a scrolled broken pediment. Naked angels lie on the pediment holding falling drapery, with an inscribed baroque shield above. Urns ornament the ends of the cornice. Within the niche, a marble moulding with a shell canopy encloses a kneeling imploring figure of Robert Pierrepont, his leg amputated, being raised by a flying angel. The niche is enclosed by hinged wooden doors, painted with curtaining on the outside and faced internally with gilded copper, bearing a long engraved inscription moralising on his dissolute life.

On the north wall at the east end stands a wall monument of 1685 in Carrara marble and slate. It comprises a classical niche with a triangular pediment and scroll supports, an urn above, and large reclining and mourning figures. A pyramid to the rear raises arms into the building's roof, all set against a marble sarcophagus, with an inscribed apron below. Within the niche is a life-sized portrait bust of Sir John Evelyn on a stand. The original iron doors that closed this niche are no longer present.

Minor monuments include an elegant wall monument of the late 18th century by Brown of Sarum, featuring a grey panel framed in white marble with an oval tablet and painted arms, dedicated to William Brooke (died 1799), his wife and son. A 19th-century white marble tablet on grey, by Osmund, commemorates William Griffinhoofe (died 1832). In the porch is a tablet recording the restoration of the building in 1868. An unfixed 12th to 13th-century stone coffin with a head recess is also present.

A brass mounted on a Purbeck slab against the wall commemorates George Evelyn, a child who died in 1641 aged six. Four 19th-century benefaction boards hang above the door.

The furniture includes a simple late medieval oak pew and an unattached pew end with an elementary poppyhead. Four loose stones, one being a piscina bowl, are also present.