Woodchester Mansion Chapel
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WOODCHESTER MANSION CHAPEL A GLIMPSE OF THE HEAVENLY CITY by Richard Barton The text of this leaflet also appears on the btsarnia website by Richard Barton and can be found at https://btsarnia.org/2017/09/18/woodchester-mansion-chapel/ © Copyright 2017 Richard Barton & Woodchester Mansion Trust Ltd No part of this document may be reproduced without the written permission of Woodchester Mansion Trust Ltd Published by the Woodchester Mansion Trust Ltd, Nympsfield, Stonehouse, Gloucestershire GL10 3TS Registered charity no. 900315 Registered in England no. 2454467 Cover illustration: Benjamin Bucknall’s presentation drawing showing the external elevation of the west end of the chapel, c1860. Essentially as built. 2 The East range of the Mansion, showing the chapel, from a twentieth century postcard. All visitors to Woodchester Park and the Mansion realise that the focal point of the house is the chapel. In William Leigh’s time the main entrance to the Park was at the eastern end of the valley in South Woodchester. If the house had been completed visitors would have trundled up the long drive in their carriages and would then have been confronted by the chapel’s beautiful eastern elevation. The eyes of those entering the house would be drawn down the length of the vaulted great corridor towards its entrance. Today the lovely chapel is still incomplete, and to modern (and especially non-Catholic) audiences the question arises; how was it going to be used? Between 1846 and 1849, well before he started work on the Mansion, William Leigh had erected the Church of Our Lady of the Annunciation at South Woodchester. Originally the church was designed for the Passionist Fathers but, soon after its completion, these religious were replaced by members of the English Dominican Province. The Passionists preferred missionary work and moved on 3 from Woodchester to Broadway after successfully sowing the seeds of the Catholic revival in the valley. Leigh was said to be drawn to the Dominicans by their black and white habits and, it would seem, he wanted his friars to sing daily the Divine Office or Liturgy of the Hours in his Priory Church. They occupied the choir stalls situated beyond the rood screen, set within the chancel arch, and to their north was the gallery for the organ and beyond this gallery was the tower with its bells. Like many other converts from the mid-nineteenth century Leigh wanted to connect with medieval Catholic Christendom by creating a successor to the bare ruined choirs of England. He would also have watched with interest the revival of religious life over the channel in France. Here Benedictine life was being restored at Solesmes by Dom Prosper Gueranger and the Dominican order was being rejuvenated by Lacordaire and Pere Jandal. The determination of these clerics to undo the ravages of the French Revolution encouraged Englishmen to contemplate a reversal of the destruction wrought in their own land during the time of the Reformation. Certainly, Woodchester Priory is part of that romantic movement associated with the Second Spring and Leigh’s work should be seen in a broader context which might encompass the Redemptorist house at Hanley Swan, the Cistercian Abbey at Mount St Bernard in Leicestershire, the Franciscan community at Pantasaph in Wales and the construction of new houses in England for the Benedictine communities that had fled revolutionary France. We should not forget the Dominican nuns who eventually settled at Hartpury and the Franciscan nuns at Taunton. William Leigh was committed to his Priory and it is there that he would have gone on Sundays and Holy Days for High Mass and possibly at other times too. It was in the Priory Church that he established his family chapel dedicated to the Holy Martyrs of Sebaste and it is within this chapel, today, that we find his recumbent effigy 4 in alabaster and the memorial celebrating his son’s survival from shipwreck. In the crypt of the church there is a mortuary chapel where his body would have been laid before being placed in the family vault beneath the family chapel. Benjamin Bucknall’s plan for a five bay chapel, dated 1860. The provision of a domestic chapel at Woodchester Park seems to go against a trend found elsewhere in Gloucestershire where the existing domestic chapels were being replaced by public chapels. The Catholic chapel at Horton Court was closed and replaced in 1838 by a church at Chipping Sodbury and, following this, the ones at Beckford Hall and Hatherop Castle were replaced by new churches at Kemerton (1843) and Fairford (1845). However, these earlier domestic chapels were established before the Catholic Relief Acts and were a means of covertly maintaining the Faith. In contrast Woodchester Mansion Chapel should be compared with four chapels designed by Pugin - 5 Alton Towers and Alton Castle for Lord Shrewsbury, Grace Dieu for Ambrose Phillips de Lisle and finally Pugin’s own domestic chapel at Ramsgate. The planned chapel at Woodchester Mansion was not going to be a family chapel like the one described at the Priory; there would be no vault for the Leigh Family or personal memorials. However, the Plans for the interior of the east Mansion Chapel does need to be end of the chapel showing a rood understood in the context of the screen (left) and altar with a Priory Church and the community tabernacle. of friars who served it. The chapel was to be a domestic chapel and it was probably intended that a Dominican friar should reside at the mansion to serve the spiritual needs of the Leigh Family. The census returns for 1861, 1871 and 1881 reveal that the family had a priest staying with them at ‘The Cottage’. Extensions to ‘The Cottage’ had included the provision of a temporary chapel which was regularly used for Mass. Although the Mansion Chapel is a majestic structure it has a relatively small floor plan, reduced in the planning from five to three bays. Its purposes would have been three-fold; to be a chapel of ease for the convenience of members of the Leigh Family and their household, to be a place where Leigh and his family could grow in holiness through the carrying out of their devotions, and finally to be a witness to the truth of the Catholic Religion for those visiting the household. It seems likely that William Leigh may have considered for a time that the Mansion Chapel would be used by the wider Catholic community; perhaps by families living on the estate and in the village of Nympsfield. This is a possible reason why the plans show an increase 6 in size from three, through four to five bays, and then a reduction to the present three bay structure. The mission in Nympsfield was a converted house and the Catholics from the village would have gone to the Priory church at Woodchester on Sundays. It is said that Leigh, a kind and considerate man, gave the Nympsfield children lifts back in his carriage after the Sunday services. It was not until 1878 that Charles Hansom was invited to draw up plans for a proper church for the villagers, and finally, after the efforts Plans for the chapel interior of William Leigh’s granddaughters, looking west, showing the rose St Joseph’s Church was opened in window and font.(not as built). 1923. Detailed plans for the furnishings of the Mansion Chapel are not available, but there are some clues on the surviving drawings. The unrealised plans drawn by Benjamin Bucknall for a larger five-bay chapel include a western gallery and a rood screen. His doodled architectural drawings suggest that the altar piece would include a tabernacle and there is what appears to be a font situated at the west end. The provision of a tabernacle would indicate that the Bishop was intending to allow Leigh the privilege of having the Blessed Sacrament reserved in his chapel. At that time, this may have necessitated an assurance that a priest would be in residence. A lavish font was provided at the Priory Church so the provision of a font at the Mansion would seem unusual. These plans also include the proposed positions for the fourteen stations of the cross which were also privileged. In conclusion, these interim plans might have been for a chapel that would have had wider use than was eventually envisaged for the chapel that was actually built. 7 Turning to the final plans we can see that there was to be a proper confessional so that a spiritual director would be able to shrive the members of the family and the household. We are also aware that there was going Plans for the north wall of the chapel, with the organ to be a large reliquary and adjacent gallery. on a shelf to the north of the altar which was to be flanked by candles. The final design of the chapel also included an organ gallery to the north, so that the singing could be accompanied, and the area which exists between the stairs and organ gallery may have been intended for the use of a small schola. It is doubtful whether the final design would have included a rood screen as the lay-out would be too cramped. How was the chapel to be used? The celebration of the Eucharist was undoubtedly the reason for building the chapel, as for William Leigh participation in the sacred mysteries was to experience a foretaste of the heavenly banquet, to be united with the angels and saints in worship, and to glimpse into a world beyond.