Reasons for Designation
A medieval chapel is a building, usually rectangular, containing a range of
furnishings and fittings appropriate for Christian worship in the pre-
Reformation period. Chapels were designed for congregational worship and were
generally divided into two main parts: the nave, which provided accommodation
for the laity, and the chancel, which was the main domain of the priest and
contained the principal altar. Around 4000 parochial chapels were built
between the 12th and 17th centuries as subsidiary places of worship built for
the convenience of parishioners who lived at a distance from the main parish
church. Other chapels were built as private places of worship by manorial
lords and lie near or within manor houses, castles or other high-status
residences. Chantry chapels were built and maintained by endowment and were
established for the singing of masses for the soul of the founder. Some
chapels possessed burial grounds. Unlike parish churches, the majority of
which remain in ecclesiastical use, chapels were often abandoned as their
communities and supporting finances declined or disappeared. Many chantry
chapels disappeared after the dissolution of their supporting communities in
the 1540s.
Chapels, like parish churches, have always been major features of the
landscape. A significant number of surviving examples are identified as being
nationally important. The sites of abandoned chapels, where positively
identified, are particularly worthy of statutory protection as they were often
left largely undisturbed and thus retain important information about the
nature and date of their use up to their abandonment.
Details
This monument includes ruins and buried remains of a medieval chapel at
Warland in Totnes. It was constructed as a chantry in 1270 by Walter le Bon
and his wife. The chapel was appropriated in 1508 to the Vicars Choral of
Exeter Cathedral, when it ceased to be used as a religious house. It later
became a ruin and is now partly incorporated into four houses, which are not
included in the scheduling.
The chapel was a high single storey rectangular building of mortared
rubble, aligned east to west and lit by eight tall lancet windows on
either side, carved from yellow Salcombe Regis limestone, with broad plain
chamfers both outside and in. The windows, which were unglazed, had iron
bars and external rebated shutters.
Part of the chapel's west end wall and south west corner survives within the
garden wall at the rear of numbers 8, 9 and 10 Warland, and measures 10m long,
1.2m wide and 1.8m high. The north and south side walls and floor in the
western part of the chapel survive as buried remains within the gardens.
Standing remains of the south side wall, which contains three lancet windows
and survives to a height of 5m, is incorporated into the cottages to the east.
Both the cottages are Listed Grade II.
The other adjacent garden walls beyond those which form part of the chapel, as
well as fencing posts and path surfaces, where these fall within the
monument's protective margin, are excluded from the scheduling, although
the ground beneath them is included.
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
Legacy System number:
34878
Legacy System:
RSM
Sources
Other
Legal
This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
End of official list entry
