Chapel of Ripley St Thomas School

Details

LANCASTER

SD46SE ASHTON ROAD 1685-1/1/6 (West side) 18/02/70 Chapel of Ripley St Thomas School

GV II*

School chapel. 1888. Designed by Paley and Austin. Polygonal sandstone masonry with bands and dressings of ashlar. Exterior stone said to be from Lancaster and interior to be from Stourton in Cheshire. Westmorland slate roof. Gothic Revival style. Nave and chancel under a continuous roof, a south aisle under a pitched roof with a transeptal vestry and organ chamber at the east end, and a north-west porch. The external walls have an unusual treatment, with the bays being separated by buttresses, between which span double-chamfered segmental arches at a lower level with blind walling below and with pointed traceried windows above. The south aisle is of 3 bays with 3-light windows, with a 4th gabled transept bay to the east which has a mullioned window of 3 pointed lights at the lower level and a traceried cross window, the lower part blind, above. The east wall of the transept and the south wall of the chancel are blind. The west window of the aisle is of one light, and to the west of the aisle the nave has a 2-light window. The east chancel window is of 6 lights, as is the west window of the nave. On the north side the east chancel bay is blind and the 2nd bay has a 4-light window with reticulated tracery. Between nave and chancel is a projecting stair turret, with a doorway across its north-west angle, originally used to admit members of the public. The north wall of the nave has windows of 2, 3, 3 and 3 lights. The north porch has a gable of shallow pitch, a moulded pointed outer doorway, and a similar inner doorway with a fleuron order. To the west are 3 bays of an arcaded covered way which now links the chapel with a C20 classroom block. At the junction between nave and chancel is a tall octagonal fleche with weather vane and an open timber bell stage which has carved oak tracery decoration and a balcony. The original bell was said to have belonged to the Parish Church peal. INTERIOR: the 3-bay arcade to the south aisle has moulded pointed arches springing from piers which are each of 6 clustered shafts with moulded capitals and bases. The chancel archway is continuously moulded in 3 orders with deep hollows. The windows have 2-centred rear-arches, and a wall passage at sill level on the north side of the nave and chancel and in the south wall of the aisle. In the east bays of the chancel it is expressed as 3-bay arcades with trefoiled heads. The north transept contains a vestry at the lower level, with an organ above within arched openings to both aisle and chancel. Nave has open timber roof with elaborate arch-braced trusses and false hammerbeam trusses. Chancel has a 2-bay quadripartite stone vault, the outer corners carried on concave octagonal shafts rising from floriated corbels. The lower parts of nave walls have oak panelling with tracery decoration, and near the west end the nave is divided by a solid oak screen with central opening. The choir stalls are of 6 bays on each side and have elaborately carved and crocketed semi-octagonal canopies projecting forward from buttressed shafts under a flat top with lettered balustrade. The pulpit is of oak on a sandstone base and the pews are of oak. HISTORY: Chapel built originally for Ripley Hospital, an orphanage, later converted to Ripley St Thomas School (qv). (Cross Fleury (pseud.): Time-Honoured Lancaster: Lancaster: 1891-: 397).

Listing NGR: SD4767060701

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

383038

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Cross, F, Time Honoured Lancaster, (1891), 397

End of official list entry