Patrick Comerford
I have been in Buckingham twice this week, and yesterday, for the first time, I managed to see inside the Chantry Chapel of Saint John the Baptist, the oldest surviving building in the town.
I have seen this chapel on many occasions, it had been closed each time. So it was a delight to find it opened yesterday morning.
Few buildings in Buckingham date to before the 18th century because a large fire destroyed much of the town in 1725. But the chantry chapel survived, and is tucked away on Market Hill in a cosy corner off the Market Square.
Over the centuries, this chapel has had many uses, including a hospital, chapel, school and, in recent years, a second-hand bookshop and coffee shop.
The Chantry Chapel was built in the late 12th century as part of Saint John’s Hospital, Buckingham, when Saint John’s Hospital for the Poor and Infirm was built by William Frechet. Some time later, the hospital fell into disuse, and it was restored was restored by Matthew Stratton, the Archdeacon of Buckingham.
The hospital was granted to the Master of the House of Saint Thomas of Acon in London, which was dedicated to Saint Thomas à Becket. The building became a chantry chapel in 1268, founded by Matthew de Stratton, Archdeacon of Buckingham.
The Royal Latin School was founded in the chapel in 1423, with the chantry priests probably serving as the first schoolmasters. A schoolmaster’s house was added to the north. The school was originally established to teach boys the Trivium: Latin grammar, logic and rhetoric.
The building was in ruin again by the 1460s, and the present building dates from the 15th century, when John Ruding, Archdeacon of Lincoln, undertook rebuilding work in 1471 and 1481, incorporating the Norman doorway. Ruding also gave the school its motto, ‘Alle May God Amende,’ in 1471.
The chantry chapel was dissolved, along with other chantries, at the Tudor Reformation, and it was known as the Royal Latin School from 1540. In 1548, King Edward VI granted a charter for the school, for 30-40 pupils, with an endowment of £10 and with 12 trustees.
The school endowment of £10 8s ½d from a separate chantry in Thornton was transferred to the school at Saint John the Baptist in Buckingham in 1597. From that date, the Royal Latin School inherited royal status and a requirement to teach six boys.
At several times in its history, the chapel has been near to decay. A major fire in 1696 destroyed the Master’s House which was rebuilt by Alexander Denton, complete with a garden.
The nearby parish church, Saint Peter and Saint Paul collapsed in 1776, and the school was temporarily relocated so services could be held in the chapel. Much of the timber from the church may have been used to re-roof the chapel when the building was restored at the expense of Earl Temple of Stowe in 1776. Some time later, an extra floor was added to create an upper and lower storey, although this was later removed.
By 1781, the chantry chapel was also serving as a Sunday School, said to be only the second Sunday School in England.
The chapel was twice restored by public subscription, in 1857 and again in 1879, under the direction of Sir George Gilbert Scott.
By the 1870s, the school had 65 pupils, including 25 boarders, and four masters, and became known as Saint John’s Chapel Grammar School and Saint John’s Royal Latin School.
Inspectors advised the trustees in 1898 that the old buildings were totally inadequate and unsuitable for modern educational requirements. Buckinghamshire County Council agreed to establish the school on a new site on Chandos Road, and the Royal Latin School moved from the Chantry Chapel in 1907.
The chapel was bought by public subscription In 1912 and given to the National Trust. Since then, it has been open to the public as a café and second-hand bookshop.
The chapel is an aisleless rectangle, built of uncoursed limestone rubble with limestone dressings and a plain-tile roof.
The chapel retains the original Romanesque doorway. The Norman doorway is near the middle of the left side with one order of shafts with leaf capitals, imposts with palmette-in-zigzag ornament, an inner arch with ornaments of shallow pointed-arched arcading, and a chevron ornament to the outer arch and to the hoodmould. The gabled bellcote at the apex was added in the 19th century.
The chapel is a Grade II* listed building since it was added to the list by English Heritage in 1952. It was closed each time I visited Buckingham in the past, although a sign outside indicated the National Trust has plans to reopen it soon. So I was pleased to find the chapel open yesterday morning.
Today, the chapel houses a second-hand bookshop and the ancient and much altered interior is open to the public.
Originally, an altar would have stood before the south window (the liturgical east end), but no internal features are now visible due to the plaster covering. The building still contain the aumbry once used to hold the sacred vessels, on the north liturgical side of the altar area, and a piscina on the south liturgical side of the altar area, where the priests rinsed their hands and the chalice and patten.
The roof is a mediaeval and 19th-century mix with tile covering that probably dates from the 20th century. The floor is entirely modern.
The remains of two blocked, early windows can be found in the stonework of the west (liturgical south) wall. One is adjacent to the door, and the other is above it. The blockings almost certainly took place in the 1870s when all the windows were restored, and new ones added.
A small bellcote sits atop the ridgeline of the roof. Putlog holes for scaffolding from previous building or renovation works can also be seen on the exterior of the building.
The café serves sweet treats, tea and coffee. The second-hand bookshop takes up most of the public space of the main chapel building.
Buckingham has two other former chantries or hospitals dating from the 13th to 15th centuries and that survived the Reformation, Barton’s Chantry and Hospital on Church Street and Christ’s Hospital on Market Hill.
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