Heath Chapel

Heath Chapel has survived virtually unaltered for nearly 900 years. It is one of the plainest, simplest churches you will ever see. Other than its ornate south doorway it looks to be a fairly plain and unassuming building, like a barn in an empty field, but that’s the attraction with Heath. Famous historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner describes it as “the perfect example of a rich little Norman chapel”.

The chapel once served the now abandoned medieval village of Heath. There are subtle traces of earthworks north of the church which indicate that this was once a more substantial settlement than it is today. The plague exacted a heavy toll in the area, and by the middle of the 14th century only a small handful of families were living here, which is probably why the church has remained almost untouched and unchanged throughout its lifetime.

Heath Chapel was built in the middle of the 12th century, constructed in grey stone rubble and yellow sandstone dressings. It has a simple two-cell rectangular plan, consisting of just a nave with a south doorway and a chancel.

The chapel features several original, small, narrow Norman slit windows. The Norman south doorway has decayed capitals, is decorated with some basic chevron ornamentation, has a plain tympanum, and retains some 12th-century wrought ironwork.

Inside the chapel, the first thing you notice is the large 12th-century Norman tub font. It is badly weathered which makes it look like a plain and simple font, but looking closer you can see some patterns which means it could once have been a rather elaborately decorated font.

The whitewashed interior walls look messy and untidy, but there is a reason for this. The only alterations/additions to the chapel came in the 17th century when the walls were whitewashed, a square window was added to the north wall of the nave behind the pulpit, and the box pews and two-decker pulpit were added. A sensitive restoration was then carried out in the early 1900s when foundations were improved, gaps in the masonry were filled in, new tiled roofs were added and the medieval wall paintings were revealed that had been covered in whitewash for centuries.

The traces of medieval wall paintings and biblical texts are faint and are currently awaiting conservation. Until then, how much remains to be uncovered is uncertain.

Heath Chapel gives an almost unique chance to see a Norman chapel as it used to be, in its raw form, allowing you to imagine yourself in the 12th century when it was built. It is one of the most atmospheric places I’ve visited, eerie and silent. Aerial archaeology revealed the presence of a medieval village which once existed around the chapel. Now all completely gone, vanished, except for this this one building, an exceptional Norman survivor.