Description

EXMINSTER EXMINSTER
SX 98 NW

4/46 Chapel of Exe Vale Hospital
-
21.11.85
GV II

Chapel, disused at time of survey (1986). 1875/76 by Joseph Neale. Snecked red
brecchia with Bathstone dressings; steeply pitched slate roofs. French Gothic style.
Cruciform plan with secondary smaller transepts to the chancel containing the organ
(south) and vestry (north). Small gabled blocks to the north and south at the west
end, flush with the west wall are linked to the nave by covered walkways leading to
north and south opposed doorways at the west end of the nave. This unusual
arrangement of opposed north and south doorways to the nave may be a special plan
feature of a chapel serving a lunatic asylum. The function of the small west end
blocks is not clear, the north block has a stack and may be a boiler house. Tall
gabled bell turret at crossing.
The chancel has a steep gable, coped diagonal buttresses and a triple trefoil-headed
east lancet with a hoodmould with carved label stops; 2 lancet windows to north and
south sides. The south chancel transept (organ chamber) has 2 lancets to each face,
the north chancel transept (vestry) has a shouldered doorway with nook shafts on the
east wall and a stone chimney shaft at the apex of the gable. The principal
transepts have angle buttresses and north and south paired lancets below a roundel
with a hoodmould with carved label stops. The south transept has a door in the east
wall. The nave has 3 lancets to each side and buttresses, a large west door and 2
lancet windows below a traceried roundel with a hoodmould. The small north and south
blocks are gabled to west and east with lancet windows, the west windows paired
lancets below a roundel. Slate-roofed walkways lead from the blocks to opposed north
and south doorways at the west and of the nave.
Interior Good carved detail in the French style and a complete set of fittings of
1875/76. Moulded chancel arch carried on paired shafts on corbels; moulded
transeptal arches (main and subsidiary) on paired shafts with carved capitals and
bases. Good arched brace nave and chancel roofs, boarded behind, with struts above
the collar and the braces springing from timber corbels. 3-bay stone reredos, the
central bay gabled, the outer bays trefoil-headed with diaper carving. Good sequence
of floor tiles to the chancel and coeval altar rail. The chancel screen has a
freestone ashlar base and 5 bays of open timber tracery above. 6-sided pulpit with
trefoil-headed panels with diaper carving divided by marble shafts. Contemporary
bench ends with canted corners decorated with simple roundels. All windows boarded
up at time of survey (1986) except the east window, by Drake of Exeter; nevertheless
all the glass is intact and of a high quality, some designed by Messrs. Horwood Bros.
of Frome; others by Drake. The west windows depict the healing of the sick. Brass
plaque to Joseph Neale, the architect, died 1877, on west wall.
The chapel was opened in 1875 and cost £2,600. A fine example of a complete chapel
of its date with high quality fittings and notable carving. The unusual plan adds to
the interest of the building.
Devon County Lunatic Asylum, Report of the Committee of Visitors for the Year 1876
(1877), p.13.

Listing NGR: SX9407988133

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26389294

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

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  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
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