The Fair Mile Chapel

Today I am going to address a chapel I should have posted a long time ago. If you look at the churches in my maps you will find this one listed but it is attributed to another blog I have that is in long need of some work doing to it.The chapel was where patents and staff could go and worship and no doubt back when the place was first built you had to go to for Sunday worship as part of the job. No doubt part of the Victorian thinking was to healing that going to church  was for the good of your soul. One side chapel was consecrated as Catholic sometime in the 1950s before that they used a building nearby.My parents both worked at the Hospital from around 1942 till they retired in 1978. Dad died a couple of years later aged 60 Mum went on till she was 88 before joining him up at the local churchyard. After she died I as sorting out the old photos and came across a treasure trove of picture taken at Fair Mile. They became the reason I started writing Forgotten Fairmile. Many of the photos were used in a book a colleague wrote on the place and went towards a huge Exhibition we had on the place. Sadly the hospital closed in 2003 and lay empty till 2010 when they started converting the place to housing. I managed to get on site during all this time to photograph what was going on. I wrote a blog on the chapel for Forgotten Farimile but it never appeared on the Church Explorer, best part is it was one of the first explores I did. I have updated the original blog with more photos of the outside and tried hope you enjoy the story though you might find some of the photos a little disturbing.

The blog was written around some photos I found of my Mother and her friends I thought it would be good to find out where the picture was taken 

This is the photo of my Mother and friend that was taken outside the chapel

 It seemed a popular place to have a photo taken 

The Chapel would have been used for the salvation of the people who worked there and some of the patients who were able to go. From what I could see the place was not used that much and I think in the end the catholic  priest was the only one who had any service there though even that went out the window and he used one of the old rooms in the admin block after services could not beheld there because it was too cold in the winter.

The only photo I have so far of the old catholic chapel which can be see to the right of the arrow in the top of the photo. I suspect it was demolished sometime in the late 1970's

And it could get cold, this is what it looked like in Jan 2010 after the hospital closed 

Almost lost in the snow here 

Looking very cold an unwelcoming

I cannot say it looked a lot better during the day which is how I saw it for the first time in around ten years back in 2008

The Shrubbery around the East end had really gone wild

  I September 2010 the contractors moved in to begin converting the hospital, the offices were plonked in the car park beside the Chapel. I might add this is where the old security used to be sighted as well not that it was up to much from what I saw from the inside of it. Half the cameras did not work proplerly

 This was an old entrance  to the chapel

The area looked like this when it was cleared away 

It has some very nice Victorian brickwork decorating it

 Though it did not look that good after years of neglect. 

 Around the North side was a covered porch which no doubt was the main entrance, if you look to the left a little more you see another door which used to be the one we used to go to the Catholic chapel

 

 The West entrance which I cannot ever remember being used

 

 The door to the chapel was open when I visited the site one Friday so I wandered in and took a load of photos, it was the fist time I had been in the place for over ten years, I was pretty shocked I must admit. I went to the back where the West door is and took this shot down the nave

 

The one is near where I cam in and you can see both transepts right & left and the chancel. The left transept is where the catholic chapel was and a sliding screen could be pulled across. On the right was where the organ is

I used to remember a member of the congregation playing this at Mass

The keyboards looked like they wanted to be played 

 

The catholic Chapel

Over in the North transept where the Catholic chapel was I noticed the altar had gone and the tabernacle was missing the front.
That was left on the table where the altar wine used to be kept during mass

It was broken and ripped off the hinges, some (for want of a better word) Vandal had torn it off.

 

On the windowsill were a couple of metal vases, wonder they had not been thrown around

 

Inside the vestry and confessional 

 

 

The altar in the main chapel was there and the hangings draped over it

 

Looking back up the chapel the sunlight poured in and lit the aisle up

 

I took some more photos round the organ in the South transept, it looked proud and I hoped it would be saved
 

All it need is the music and an organist

 

Above the inside of the organ was on display

 

Left the clerks desk beside the choir stalls in the chancel 

The pulpit and clerks desk

 

 

A bible was still on the Pulpit lectern where you could see empty pews which no longer would seem people sat in them in this chapel

 

I had to wonder what would happen to the pulpit

Along on the south wall one of the windows had a hymn board in place with the number 193

 

Nearby on one of the pews hymn books were stacked

 

By the organ a vase and music waited 

Must have been a year or so later I found myself back in the chapel again. The organ had gone

taken away and in it's place flat pack kitchen units stored

 

The beautiful cross on which the switches used to be taken away
I left not wanting to see any more and felt deflated at the loss of the place

 

Back to my first photos of my Mother and friends, I'm sure it was here the pictures were taken all those years ago. 

 

I walked past the chapel in 2019 and got this photo, it was for letting though I could not say if any one and taken up the offer

Back across the lawn it looked a bit more welcoming in the sunlight.
Till Next time Take care and stay safe

St Magarets Chapel Chapel

As it is Easter I thought I would write on a place I visited but never posted about on The Church Explorer, probably because I forgot about the place but with Easter upon us I suddenly remembered this place. It's real name of the place is the Hospital of St Mary Magdalene Glastonbury and was built around 1310 you can read more about the place in the link. Now I have to admit Glastonbury is an odd place with a mix of very different people, some are of local Somerset origin others moved there for the peace of the place and the odd ones out who are  what I term as new age travellers who just seem to hang around. The shops there vary with many selling healing stones some occult items. I find it a very weird mix to be honest. But head along the road from the Abbey and you will come across the Almshouse.

You would easily walk past the entrance to the place which is along this passage

You then come out in this little garden with the almshouses lining one side

You can go in on of the dwellings as it has been restored, you will see a raised bed where the occupant would sleep

A fireplace where they would get heat and cook their meals. Not sure about the chairs you see I'd have thought they would be lucky to sit on anything when the place opened. One window for light though I see that has been blocked up.

 

If you look back along the garden you can see the St Margaret's Chapel in front of you

Go inside and this is what you will see, I stitched some photos together to get this panoramic, the photo was taken back in 2013 before I had an iPhone

The chapel is a single cell building with an altar at the East end and altar rail.

A simple cross and vases of flowers either side decorate the altar. The candle in the bowl is on the altar rail

This unadorned altar is simple and to the point. It was one of the very few places of worship that I have felt at peace and where I wanted to spend a little longer. What ever you believe I think you could find a moment peace in here.

If you find yourself in Glastonbury you will no doubt go to the Abbey and  I would say it is worth going to, you will find St Patrick's church there which is another very simple church to visit, the Abbey I find is a place I love to go and find it peaceful but the Almshouse chapel is worth it. Even the Main church in town though nice enough does not hold a candle to it.

Till Next time Have a good Easter and Say Safe