Church Heritage Record 610323

4-bay chapel with south porch and north-west turret, and chancel with south vestry and east porch with vault beneath. Boiler room west of vestry. The interior has a west narthex with gallery overhead and 3-bay nave.

[Approximate] Nave 12.5m (41ft) x 6m (20ft), chancel 6m (20ft)

The park is recorded as having been in use for hunting and timber production in the medieval period and a hall and chapel existed in 1327 [EH]. Henry II is known to have stayed and hunted at Stansted. The site of the chapel was originally occupied by a two-storey, 15th-century house, the original Stansted House. This was partially destroyed during the Civil War and a new house was built to the north-west in the 17th Century. That in turn was destroyed by fire in 1900 and rebuilt in 1901. All records of the chapel were lost in the fire.

The chapel incorporates some 15th-century fabric at the west end. Reverend Lewis Way [1772-1840] bought the estate in 1804. He wanted to establish a missionary college at Stansted, of which the chapel would have been the focus, to promote Christianity amongst Jews so he remodelled and extended the chapel (tentatively attributed to Thomas Hopper) in 1812. However the Diocese refused his applications for the college and he sold the site in 1826.

The first recorded service was held in 1815 as recorded by a stone plaque above the south door, though it was not consecrated until 1819. The consecration service was attended by the poet John Keats who was influenced by the unusual east window in his poem ‘The Eve of St Mark’ as well as armorial glass in the nave windows which enters the poem ‘The Eve of St Agnes’.

Though originally a private chapel for Stansted House it became a daughter church of the new parish of Forestside in 1856. It was restored by the architect and art historian H S Goodhart-Rendel for the 9th Earl of Bessborough in 1926 (he had bought Stansted in 1924) and once again following bomb damage in 1947. Although acting as a chapel of ease for some time, it was only officially made a chapel of ease in May 2012.

There is a great deal of further information available on the history of the building and its contents including a NADFAS report, a Scottish Glass studios report and books on Stansted Park such as Lord Bessborough’s book The Enchanted Forest which tells the estate’s story since the 12th Century.

The registered landscape within which the chapel is situated includes formal and walled gardens and informal pleasure grounds of early to late 19th  and 20th century origin, set within a late 17th-century landscape of parkland, formal avenues and woodland rides which were in part developed and altered in the later 18th and early 19th centuries. Walpole praised the landscape in 1785 [EH].

The archaeological potential of the site is considerable given the earlier construction on the site. There is a vault beneath the east porch. The site is within an AONB and contains mature trees and as such is of considerable ecological value. Its position within a registered landscape is also of considerable value.

Attractive brick chapel of irregular design due to its evolution. From north or south the Y-tracery windows give the chapel a Gothick appearance, but from the east or west the red brick crenellated parapets and north-west turret date the building as Tudor.

The four-bay red brick nave has a pitched roof. The north and south elevations have four large three-light Y-tracery wooden windows beneath hoodmoulds with three-stage buttresses between them. Flintwork is evident towards the east end of the north side. The west end has a crenelated parapet with an attached octagonal north-west turret. A square headed door is centrally positioned in the west elevation with a four-light square-headed window above. Substantial buttresses to either side. At the east end a crenellated parapet, like that at the west end, can be seen above the east nave wall and a chimney rises to its south side. A smaller two-bay chancel with crenellated parapet, punctuated by pinnacled buttresses, extends east. The crenellations continue around the gabled east elevation. A quatrefoil in the gable end contains a date stone of 1816, beneath it is a seven-light window beneath a prominent hoodmould. A lower porch (containing the vault) also with crenellated parapet completes the eastward extension. An inscribed stone is set in the wall above the studded east door. A low, rendered vestry extends to the south side of the chancel. A passage around the south side of the chapel is blocked by a wall between the adjacent house with the vestry.

A two-storey gabled south porch, in the south-west corner, almost obscured by a yew tree, has a two-light blocked window above the brick surround of the ground-level doorway. Pinnacled turrets rise either side. The porch is raised by a shallow step and has stone flags paving the interior floor. A stone plaque inscribed with the dates of the building is positioned over the inner door. There are blocked doorways to west and east. Four oak half-acorns, like corbels, are placed in the corners. The acorn was the symbol of the Arundels who owned the estate until the 16th Century. The motif can be seen elsewhere in the building.

Though there are many doors into the church, that from the south porch is primarily used. It enters into a narthex (also known as the baptistery – the font is in the north-east corner). It is a low space with a groin-vaulted ceiling. Shafts, painted to look like Purbeck marble (plastered wood), support a gallery overhead.  There is a fireplace in the south-west corner which has been dated to the 16th-century and considered part of an original building on the site. There are several trompe l’oeil panels on the walls, some containing inscriptions. Fixed benches in U-shapes to the east beneath three-light cinquefoil-headed windows with clear glass that look through to the nave. Wood panelling with blind tracery beneath them. The floor is of stone flags either side with black and white marble tiles continuing the line of the nave aisle.

In the north-west corner, an oak spiral staircase within the turret gains access to the gallery above. The western most section, where some furniture is stored, is screened by an internal ten-light cinquefoil-headed window with clear glass. The gallery has pine floorboards, fixed tiered benches and a centrally placed organ. Vaulting over head is different to that above the nave. The balustrade at the front of the galley has an iron arcade painted black with cinquefoil arches and a wooden handrail.

Back downstairs the nave is raised by two stone steps from the narthex. Above the three-bays is a groin-vaulted ceiling with white painted plaster with applied floriate details at the springing points and radiating from the bosses. Three brass chandeliers hang on chains down the central aisle, added in 1926. The aisle floor is laid in black and white marble floor tiles with raised wood pew platforms either side, with fixed high-backed benches. Some of those near the chancel have pillar columns. The windows contain clear glazing in diamond leaded panes with the exception of the south-east window [see below] and a central horizontal strip across each of the windows is embellished with armorial shields set within quatrefoils.

On the west wall, beneath the gallery is a blind trefoil headed arcade which repeats along the east wall either side of the chancel arch. This area is raised by a single step with a wrought iron grille in the vertical. The black and white marble tiles take on a different orientation that continues into the chancel. Some wall monuments are fixed within the openings and there are more monuments on the north wall. The pulpit is situated in the north-east corner and a priest’s desk faces the aisle.

The chancel, which was added by Way though much restored by Goodhart-Rendel, is raised by a step. The chancel arch has elongated quatrefoils within its span and a Greek text from Ephesians about Jews and Gentiles being united in Christ painted above. Communion rails span the width at ground level. The exquisite space is highly decorated with enhanced gilding by Goodhart-Rendel. A rib-vaulted celestial painted ceiling with ornate bosses is supported by slender clusters of piers on marble bases set a short distance in from the north and south walls. Smaller clusters are attached to the walls. The walls are panelled beneath the windows with blind cinquefoil headed arches above a faux-marble (painted wood) skirting. The panelling is painted red with gold embellishment, the walls are blue. There are doors in the north and south walls beneath ogee arch surrounds; that to the south leads into the vestry. Two brass crosses are laid in the floor. The altar and stalls and credence table are built into the walls. Beneath the notable east window (seven cinquefoil lights within a segmental arch) is a reredos with blind ogee crocketed arches to either side.