Homepage
Photo Gallery 1
Photo Gallery 2
Mission Statement
Acknowledgements
Terms & Conditions

left side

 

Previous



Chantry Chapel Interior Wakefield

Citys-online would like to thank Kate Taylor and Chantry Chapel for giving their kind permission to use the above images, to obtain contact details and view their website please click here.

The Chantry Chapel of St Mary the Virgin, Wakefield Bridge, was built as an integral part of the new stone bridge across the River Calder and forms a buttress to it. It was first licensed in 1356 as a mass house where priests chanted the mass for the souls of the dead to speed them through purgatory. At the dissolution of the chantries in the sixteenth century it fell into secular hands and was used for many purposes including a cheese-cake shop and a corn-merchant’s office.

It was reclaimed by the Church of England in the 1840s and the upper part was rebuilt to the design of George Gilbert Scott. Whilst today it is in the ownership of the Dean and Chapter of Wakefield Cathedral, the Friends of Wakefield Chantry Chapel take responsibility for its repair and maintenance.

The statue of Mary dates from the 1840s restoration and used to stand in a niche outside above the east window looking down the river. But she kept falling into the water. The window is again of the 1840s and depicts scenes from the life of Christ.



Next

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

left bottom area