Chapel of Exe Vale Hospital

Details

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

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

85463

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Other
Report of the Committee of Visitors for the Year 1876, 1877,

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.