Wardour Castle Chapel

The Roman Catholic parish church of Wardour Castle Chapel, located within Wardour Park, was built between 1770 and 1776 by James Paine and Giacomo Quarenghi. John Soane subsequently enlarged the sanctuary in 1789. Constructed in limestone ashlar with a Welsh slate hipped roof, the chapel is integrated into the west pavilion of Wardour Castle and features a projecting Soane-designed sanctuary to the west. An entrance is provided by a six-panelled door set behind a stone wall extending from the front of the west pavilion. A twelve-pane sash window is positioned above it. The sanctuary’s north side includes an apsidal transept with three round-arched windows with leaded glazing on both the ground and first floors, and a lunette above. The west end of the sanctuary features six-panelled doors on either side, alongside fixed twelve-pane windows, a large blind arch, and two additional blind windows centrally. A blocking course with ball finials adorns the roofline, with a lunette positioned above the altar. The south side mirrors the north, with a transept displaying similar detailing, including twelve-pane sash windows. The nave itself is concealed behind the south front of the pavilion. A central Venetian window, illuminated by flanking sashes on the piano nobile, is present, while the rusticated basement below features five six-pane sashes and double-glazed doors. The central bay projects forward, and a blocking course containing ball finials conceals the chapel's roof.

The interior of the chapel is considered one of the finest 18th-century chapel interiors outside of London. The nave walls are lined with Composite pilasters extending to a frieze, topped by a modillioned cornice. The ceiling features a fine shallow groin vault with plaster decoration. The ritual west end, oriented to the east, is marked by double six-panelled doors within a shallow apse, beneath a gallery supported by Ionic columns. The Soane-designed sanctuary west of this features a saucer-domed ceiling with gilded plasterwork, flanked by shallow apsed areas, and incorporating galleries supported by coupled Composite columns and a wrought-iron balustrade. Semi-circular domed plaster ceilings are found in the transepts.

Significant fittings include a marble altar designed by Quarenghi and crafted in Rome by Vinelli in 1776, accompanied by a painting by Giuseppe Cades and a stained-glass lunette by F. Eginton in a pictorial style. Sanctuary lamps, created by Luigi Valadier in Rome in 1775, and a wrought-iron Communion rail are also present. A marble relief of the Virgin and Child, by P.E. Monnot (1703), originally from the chapel of the Jesuit-General, stands to the left of the entrance, set upon a gilded pedestal. A gilded pedestal font with a statue of St John the Baptist on its cover is located beneath the east gallery. A marble bust on a plinth in the north transept commemorates the Tenth Lord Arundell, who died in 1834. The chapel also houses a collection of fine paintings, plate, and significant vestments dating from the 15th century onwards.