Listed Building record MDO14282 - St Luke's Chapel, Chapel Coppice, Ashley Chase, Long Bredy

NRHE (numbered sources not listed):

St Luke's Chapel at Ashley was a Mediaeval building of which the W wall and a fragment of the NE angle of a rectangular building 32 feet x 18 feet survive. The W wall retains the opening of the W window, of which the N jamb and the four-centred rubble head remains. Reste in this wall are two carved headstops, porbably of the 15th century. An altar table of rubble has been built up in the chapel and set in the top is a slab with five crosses of doubtful age. (2,3)

The W end of this chapel is built of rubble. It is 6.0m wide, with a maximum height of 5.5m at the gable. The wall is 0.9m tick, and is pierced by an archway 2.0m wide and 3.5m high. There are two reset stone heads in this wall, and evidence of some repair to the masonry. The interior is gras covered, from which the length of the chapel may be judged as 11.0m. The masonry which once formed the NE angle has falen, and large portions lie some 5.0m NE of the original angle. The interior of the chapel has some recent grave slabs, and a modern masonry altar. (4)

The late Mediaeval date for the fabric of the chapel, and its association with a Cistercian monastic foundation, may well suggest that Ashley was farmed as a cell of Netley, and that the chapel was built for the use of a small religious community. (5)

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1974, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1973, 100 (Serial). SDO73.

'St. Luke's Chapel, Ashley, in the Parish of Longbredy. Hutchins has no evidence to offer as to the origin and nature of this well known ruin in its romantic woodland setting (SY 55808793) or to the early history of Ashley itself. A search of medieval records has shown, however, that one ploughland at Assheleghe (in the ancient parish of Litton) was given in 1246 by William de Lindington (Litton), to Robert, Abbot of the Place of St Edward (Netley Abbey near Southampton), and his church, 'for ever'. A charter dated 1251 grants to the monks of Netley Abbey free warren in their demesne lands of Waddon (now Friar Waddon) and Assheleghe. In a court case dated 1320, Ralph de Gorges, then Lord of the Manor of Litton, disputes with Netley the owernship of the land, and the gift of William of Lindington is restated. Waddon and Assheleghe continued in the possession of Netley until the Dissolution when all passed into the hands of Sir William Paulet, at which point Hutchins begins his account of Ashley. There is a mention that in 1338 the bailiff at Assheleghe was a clerk in holy orders.

Lack, in the Diocesan Record Office at Salisbury, of any record of a church at Ashley, the late mediaeval date for the fabric of the chapel, and the above association with a Cistercian monastic foundation, may well suggest that Ashley was farmed as a cell of Netley and that the chapel was built for the use of a small religious community.'

<2> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1431362 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Apr 11 2023 4:58PM