Langley Chapel is an

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of t ...

church, built in 1601, located in a remote area (the parish of

Ruckley and Langley Ruckley and Langley is a civil parish in Shropshire, England. It is centred on the hamlets of Ruckley and Langley. The population at the 2011 census can be found under Frodesley. It is situated south of Acton Burnell and west of Kenley.Ordnan ...

) approximately 1.5 miles to the south of

Acton Burnell Acton Burnell is a village and parish in the English county of Shropshire. Home to Concord College, it is also famous for an early meeting of Parliament where the Statute merchant was passed in 1283. The population at the 2011 census was 544. ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. It is now in the care of

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

, and is notable for having a complete set of original 17th-century wooden furniture, and its lack of a

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. ...

, in line both with its small size and Protestant attitudes to worship. It is one of the few new churches built in England in the Elizabethan period. Despite being built at the start of the 17th century, the east window

tracery Tracery is an architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the stonework elements that support the ...

is in a simplified Gothic style, though the doorways are in plain vernacular styles, one with a flat

lintel A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented structural item. In the case of ...

and another round-headed. The window on the north side is also plain and rectangular. It is a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

. Built on the site of an earlier

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

chapel, it provided worship for the nearby Langley Hall, whose ruins are contained within a nearby private farm. The Chapel was built with wooden

box pew A box pew is a type of church pew that is encased in panelling and was prevalent in England and other Protestant countries from the 16th to early 19th centuries. History in England Before the rise of Protestantism, seating was not customary in ch ...

s, a musicians desk and Communion table bench seats. It has no known dedication. The 19th century saw the disappearance of Langley Hall, followed by the loss of the local population. The chapel became disused. In 1914, it became one of the first buildings to be taken into the care of the state, the Ministry of Works as it was. The fact it was abandoned meant it escaped modernisation and remains a rare time capsule of the 17th century.

References

External links

www.geograph.co.uk : photos inside and outside Langley Chapel and surrounding areaEnglish Heritage visitor information
{{coord, 52.5967, -2.6830, display=title Church of England church buildings in Shropshire English Heritage sites in Shropshire Tourist attractions in Shropshire Grade I listed churches in Shropshire

See also

References

External links