Summary

A small private Catholic chapel of 1874-1875

Description

A small private Catholic chapel of 1874-1875.

MATERIALS: brick walls with a clay tile roof, timber doors and windows with stained glass lights.

PLAN: rectangular, orientated with its narrow ends to north-east and south-west, with a smaller projection to the south-west.

EXTERIOR: the walls are brick in Flemish bond, under a pitched roof with gable ends to north-east and south-west. The eaves of the roof overhang, exposing the ends of the rafters. The ends of the wall plates are visible in the gables. The roof is covered with alternating bands of red straight-edged tiles and scalloped blue clay tiles, and is topped by crested ridge tiles. Towards the south-west end, roof-lights have been added either side of the ridge.

Entry to the chapel is through a pointed-arch doorway in the north-east gable elevation. The top part of the arch is in a surround of bricks laid at an angle, presenting their headers outwards. The timber door has two panels to its lower half, and three lancets beneath a trefoil to its top half. The lancets and trefoil are filled with stained glass. The chapel’s north-west and south-east side elevations both have an arched stained-glass window centrally, set in surrounds of bricks set at an angle, as for the door. The south-west gable elevation is solid, showing the narrow projection that houses a recess behind the altar.

INTERIOR: walls are plain plaster, with a stained-glass window commemorating members of the Snead-Cox family from the C18 and C19 to each of the side walls. In the door is later (2015) stained glass by the artist Nicola Hopwood; this is a memorial to three brothers from the family lost in the First World War: Geoffrey 19 years old and Richard 21 years old in October 1914, and in 1916 at the Battle of Jutland, Herbert aged 16 years. There is a simple wooden alter against the south-west wall, with the recess behind lit by the roof lights.

History

Broxwood Court is a country house set in parkland within a wider agricultural estate. The first house at Broxwood was commissioned in 1858 by the landowner, Richard Snead-Cox (1820-1899). The original architect was C F Hansom (1817-1888), though only the (extant) stable and service wing of his design was completed. The main house being built in the 1890s by Leonard Stokes (1858-1925) but this was demolished in 1955 and replaced with the current house. The surrounding landscaped park and garden (Grade II registered, National Heritage List for England (NHLE) entry 1000876) was designed in 1860 by William Andrews Nesfield (1793-1881). The Snead-Cox family were Roman Catholics, and their main place of worship was around a quarter of a mile to the north-east of the house at the Chapel of the Holy Family (Grade II listed, NHLE entry 1349945, now a private house), which was also designed for the family by C F Hansom and built 1863.

The family’s Catholicism is expressed in the gardens, which are laid out with features given Biblical names, such as Our Lady’s Walk and St Joseph’s Hut, a pavilion in the gardens, erected as part of Nesfield’s 1860s design. The small private chapel set amongst trees off Our Lady’s Walk was constructed in thanks for Richard Snead Cox’s recovery from an accident suffered in June 1874. The chapel’s foundation stone was laid on 24 November 1874, and it was consecrated on 6 June 1875.

Reasons for Listing

The chapel in Broxwood Court Garden is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a rare C19 example of a small, private Catholic place of worship in simple Gothic style.

Historic interest:

* as a physical symbol of the private Catholic faith of the Snead-Cox family.

Group value:

* with other nearby sites connected with the Snead-Cox family that demonstrate their Catholic faith; these include the Biblically named walks in the Registered Park and Garden, St Joseph’s hut, and the larger Chapel of the Holy Family.

Recommended Books

• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook 2 Books Bundle Collection (Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair,Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability)