Petton Chapel

ST 02 SW BAMPTON PETTON

7/56 Petton Chapel

GV II

Chapel of ease to Bampton. Re-opened 1848 after thorough rebuilding by G. Boyce of Tiverton, builder Mr Gale of Bampton. Local stone rubble with slate roofs, the apse roof bitumen-painted. Plan and Development: Nothing of the medieval chapel is visible apart from the bells. Small, aisleless, Romanesque-style chapel with an apsidal east end, west doorway and bellcote, north-east vestry. Boyces original design was modified on the advice of the Exeter Diocesan Architectural Society who recommended more correct Romanesque proportions and details. Internally and externally the building is virtually unaltered since 1848. Exterior: 4-bay nave with pilasters and round-headed windows with chamfered architraves and lattice iron glazing bars string course below windows; similar pilasters and 3 windows to apse. North east vestry with round-headed east window and west doorway, small east lean-to. The west end has corner pilasters and a triple order round-headed doorway with colonnettes and capitals. 2-leaf west door. Romanesque style Rose west window, the lights divided by colonnettes with cushion capitals. Gabled west end bellcote for 2 bells, bells medieval. Interior: Plastered walls ; 4-bay arched brace nave roof on corbels ; round-headed chancel arch on cushion corbels ; 1 arched brace truss to the chancel, the apse decorated with pilaster ribs with zig-zag ornament. Bowl font with palmette decoration and frieze ; timber drum pulpit reduced in height. Timber altar rail with chamfered standards ; original benches with doors. 1840 memorial tablet behind pulpit, reused from earlier Church and given a zig-zag Romanesque frame ; stripe of red glass in east window. An extremely attractive and very intact isolated chapel. The use of Romanesque is late for the date.

Listing NGR: ST0076224449