Former chapel immediately north of Membury Court

Former Chapel North of Membury Court

This building began as a chapel in the late 13th century, was adapted in the late 15th century, and was substantially rebuilt around 1790 to serve as a cider house. It has been updated in the 20th and early 21st centuries.

The structure is constructed of rubble stone and flint with sandstone quoins. The two medieval windows are of superior quality sandstone, likely imported from Somerset. The building contains oak framing and a notable oak cider press with cast-iron fittings.

The plan is broadly rectangular with a concave arc in the north wall towards the west end. A first floor has been inserted in the central bays, accessed by an internal stair.

The main elevation is loosely divided into four bays with two door openings either side of centre, each with timber lintels and windows above. A larger opening sits between them at upper level. Both doors have two stone steps. To the right is a stone chapel window with two trefoil-headed lights and Decorated tracery containing a quatrefoil, positioned within approximately 6 metres of 13th-century wall. The window retains a partially-intact hoodmould, though the central mullion is a 21st-century replacement. The upper courses are 21st-century tiles, and there are two pigeon holes lined in red brick. Three beam ends protrude from the wall around the left window opening. The east gable-end wall is 13th-century with a central chapel window featuring three trefoil-headed lights and Decorated tracery with a hexafoil. This window has a hoodmould with weathered label stops carved as human heads. The south roof slope has a 13th-century low parapet with sandstone coping. The ashlar quoins of the medieval structure, with some reused at the 18th-century west end, have narrow chamfered corners. The north wall of the medieval chapel is stone and flint. The 18th-century stonework of the cider house neatly adjoins the medieval elevations. In the north wall, stonework curves into a central bay with a taking-in door opening, widened in the 20th century and now a three-light window. To the right of this opening an iron joist protrudes. Further right, the wall curves outward to form a semicircular feature accommodating the cider press within. The upper courses are again 21st-century tiles. The north-west corner is attached to the curved rear wall of a former late 18th- or early 19th-century horse engine-house, constructed of coursed stone and flint block. The west end wall has a door to the right and to the left an opening containing a reused 17th-century three-light window frame with ovolo-moulded timber mullions. A small opening with timber lintel sits above and to the left. The three-light opening is set within a section of wall that curves inward, probably to accommodate the horse engine. The roof is covered in 21st-century thatch.

The interior reveals the east bays as the former chancel with a raised floor at the location of a 15th-century chancel screen—a freestanding oak frame 2.24 metres high. It has a central doorway with chamfered jambs step-stopped at the top. The chamfer has been cut back at lower level to allow the passing of barrels. The framing to the north of the doorway is 21st-century. To the south is a middle rail with a low plank and muntin screen below and central mullion above, with chamfered muntins and mullion bearing step stops. A series of oak joists sit in notches along the top of the headbeam and span the bay to the west to a chamfered crossbeam with step stops. Modern joists extend across the next bay, supported by two cast-iron joist reinforcements spanning the building's width. Above the screen, part of a crosswall survives as a cill and two upright studs with a squint window and top rail. The window contains three timber mullions of octagonal section, with one panel of wattle-and-daub infill remaining. The frame is not in its original position. Embedded 150 millimetres to the east of the frame in the south wall is a cruck post from a side-pegged jointed cruck truss, probably of late 15th-century date. Other first-floor structure and the stair are 21st-century construction.

At the east (chancel) end, the 13th-century window is flanked by engaged shafts with moulded bases and capitals, and has a cob cill. The hoodmould has label stops carved as human heads—the southern head being a defaced mitred bishop, and the northern head a young monk with oriental eyes, a favoured 13th-century feature. The stone shelf to the left of the window has canted corners and a moulded soffit, probably a shelf for an image. To the right is another small shelf with similar moulding, possibly a lamp bracket. To the right of this shelf and in the north wall are square recesses, probably putlog holes for scaffolding. The medieval walls are covered in plaster, probably of 15th-century date, which stops below the east window and around a shadow-image of an altar table. The south wall has an arched piscina to the left of the window. The splayed embrasure of the south window contains graffiti including geometric shapes that may be original masons' marks. The left jamb of the south-east door is of 13th-century date.

At the west end is an axial, step-stopped, chamfered beam of large scantling, attached to the first-floor structure and the west end wall, probably 16th- or 17th-century and reused. It has joist slots showing the south-west of the building was previously floored. A cider press sits in a rubble stone plinth at the north-west end. Its large size necessitated the projecting recess in the wall behind it. It is probably 18th-century with 19th-century adaptations, including the introduction of a cast-iron screw. Above the west end are the reordered remains of historic roof structure. The modern roof above is timber-lined and strengthened using steel yacht ties. Floor coverings are 21st-century lime ash and blue lias slabs.