The Hales Chapel - front view © P.E. Blanche 1998

The Hales Chapel Front View

Together with the "oddities" of this Chapel in the trees, is the fact that at the present time, it is only open once a year.

Madonna and Child © P.E. Blanche 1998

The interior of this Chapel is round and only twelve feet across. There is an altar on the Eastern side upon which is a statue of The Madonna and Child dated September 7th, 1875 which means that it was probably brought here by the French Jesuits. The interior walls are of blue painted plaster with gilt lettering. At the present time, even after all the restoration work that has been carried out on the building, it is suffering from the damp and the walls are beginning to peel slightly. There is presently talk of placing some form of gentle heating in the Chapel in an attempt to drive out this damp.

The building was used as a mortuary chapel by the Jesuits and the brothers that died here are buried in a circle around the building about ten feet away from its outside walls. When the mansion house of Hales Place was eventually sold off in 1927, the remains of Edward, The Fifth Baronet Hales, Dowager Lady Frances Hales and the last member of the Hales family, Mary Barbara Felicity Hales were removed from the vault underneath the Chapel in the house and re-buried here outside the Chapel among the bodies of the Jesuit Priests.

On the floor, just inside the doorway is a brass which was removed from the old Chapel and also brought here. It shows Sir Edward, The Fifth Baronet, in full medieval amour. Why he should have had himself depicted in this way, nobody seems to know.

© P.E. Blanche 1998

---

Hales Chapel - Page 1
the "Churches" page | the "Hales Family" page | site index