Elston Chapel - 1900 Description

Certain lands and houses within the lordship of Elston, many of them quite detached and isolated pieces of ground, formerly constituted "the Chapelry of Elston in the Parish of East Stoke". For the convenience of the inhabitants of these houses an old stone chapel stands in a grass field at the north-east angle of Elston village. Tradition says that at one time it stood at Stoke, near the spot now occupied by the Vicarage there, and this appears to be borne out by the occurrence of fragments of mouldings and carved stone in the wall of the present fabric, which were apparently incorporated in the structure when the walls were rebuilt. Further, the date 1577 occurs on a stone over the cast window, again inside the chapel on the north wall, near by the pulpit, and as this date is necessarily something like 400 years later than the twelfth century doorway, with its Norman arch and zigzag moulding, it is very probably the date at which the Chapel was removed and rebuilt. There are fragments of stained glass in the upper panes of several of the windows, but none of it armorial.. There is a bell-cote in the western gable containing one bell, plain and uninscribed; a toothless-looking gap shows where a second hung, according to the villagers they say that it was cracked and sold by the Chapel-wardens for old metal. The Fillingham family of Syerston own some of the land in the parish, for which they are supposed to keep the chancel of the Chapel in repair, and a square pew opposite the pulpit is assigned to them. A board on the choir loft commemorates a charity left by a Sumner, which is still administered by the Rector of Elston and the two chapel-wardens. Services were formerly held here by the Vicars of Stoke, in whose parish the Chapelry was situate, but about 1870 arrangements were made by which it amalgamated with the parish of Elston, and the glebe assigned to the Rectors of All Saints, and though services were held there for a little while, they have long been discontinued and the ancient building is now shut up. Chapel wardens are still appointed, and the rent derived from the field in which the building stands more than suffices to keep it weather-tight and clean.

W.P.W Phillimore and Thomas M Blagg
Phillimore & Co.
124, Chancery Lane
1900