Wardour Castle Chapel

TISBURY WARDOUR PARK ST 92 NW (north side)

4/272 Wardour Castle Chapel

GV I

Roman Catholic parish church. 1770-76 by James Paine and Giacomo Quarenghi, sanctuary enlarged by John Soane 1789. Limestone ashlar, Welsh slate hipped roof. Contained within the west pavilion of Wardour Castle (q.v.), the Soane Sanctuary projects beyond it to the west. Entrance through 6-panelled door behind stone wall continuing to west from front of west pavilion (see Wardour Castle), 12-pane sash over. Sanctuary to right has apsidal north transept with three round-arched leaded windows to ground and first floor, lunette over. West end has 6-panelled door to left and right with 12-pane fixed window, large blind arch and two blind windows to recessed centre, blocking course with ball finials to roof, lunette above altar behind. South side has transept with same detail as north transept, 12-pane sash either side. Nave concealed behind south front of pavilion; central Venetian window with flanking sashes to piano nobile, rusticated basement below has five 6-pane sashes and double glazed doors, centre bay breaks forward, blocking course with ball finials conceals roof of Chapel. Interior: one of the finest C18 chapel interiors outside London; nave walls lined with Composite pilasters to frieze and modillioned cornice, fine shallow groin vault with plaster decoration. Ritual west end to the east has double 6-panelled doors in shallow apse below gallery on Ionic columns. Sanctuary to the west by Soane has fine saucer domed ceiling with gilded plaster decoration, shallow apsed 'east' end flanked by coupled Composite columns, apsed transepts with galleries on marble columns and wrought-iron balustrade, semi-circular domed plaster ceilings. Fittings: Marble altar designed by Quarenghi and made in Rome by Vinelli 1776, painting behind altar by Giuseppe Cades and lunette stained glass above by F. Eginton in pictorial style, Sanctuary lamps by Luigi Valadier, 1775, Rome, wrought-iron Communion rail. Fine marble relief of Virgin and Child to left of entrance by P.E. Monnot, 1703, originally from chapel of Jesuit-General, gilded pedestal font with statue of St John the Baptist on cover, also below east gallery. Marble bust on plinth in north transept of Tenth Lord Arundell died 1834. Chapel also contains fine set of paintings, plate and an important collection of vestments dating from the C15 onwards. (N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England, Wiltshire, 1975; Country Life, 10 October 1968; P. Caraman, Wardour, A Short History, 1984)

Listing NGR: ST9274026966