Millennium Project
Deddington, Clifton and Hempton have a long history of dissidence, starting in the reign of King Charles I and continuing throughout the 18th and 19th centuries to the present day. Over the years there have been at least seven non-conformist chapels and churches, two of which are still in use. There is also a private chapel in Castle House. Click on any small image to see a full size copy. View this annotated map (PDF) if you want to see the location of the sites indicated by the letter B through to F. |
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B Wesleyan Reform Chapel, Chapel Square (Editor's note 2022: The Chapel closed for good in September 2018 and was subsequently sold to a local owned commercial company 'Auteur' which experienced great difficulty in establishing legal ownership but in December 2022 it finally opened for business and named the building 'Chapel Hall' to acknowledge its history) |
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C An earlier Methodist Chapel, now a private house, was built before 1800. Mentioned in the Oxfordshire Religious Census of 1851, it was later used as a schoolroom and during World War II served as a Forces' canteen. (Editor's note 2010: Follow this link to find out more about the interesting history of this building) |
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D Former Congregational Church, New Street (Editors' note 2012: The chapel is now a private house.) |
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E Before 1881 the town non-conformists met in a small chapel in the Tchure, later called Foresters Hall. That building, shown as a chapel in the 1881 Ordnance Survey map, is now in commercial use. (Editor's note 2017: The building is now a number of private residences) |
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F Chapel on New Street (Editor's note: Later research in 2010 has revealed that the foundation stone of this building was laid in 1898 as a Primitive Methodist Chapel. Colvin's date of 1840 almost certainly relates to one of the other two Methodist buildings in use at that time. Follow this link to read more about one of them on Church Street) |
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Castle House has a 12th Century private chapel. Suprisingly, it is on the first floor level in the oldest part of the house, the tower area. It is a tiny, intimate room, only about 8ft by 10ft, with stone and plaster walls, a polished wooden floor and raftered ceiling. Two walls are taken up with stone seating recesses with cushions, three on each wall, and the centre arch on the North wall houses the only window - a small leaded one. On the opposite wall a small niche carries a wooden cross and a brass crucifix stands on the altar itself. It is still maintained as a chapel, although not in regular use. Above is a priest's hole - a hiding place in times past for those who broke the law of the land by daring to conduct a Catholic service. Castle House chapel information by Mary Robinson. |