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The Chapel of Our Lady on Rotherham Bridge
The Chapel of Our Lady on Rotherham Bridge is one of a handful of medieval bridge chapels left in England. Before the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the
reign of Henry VIII Chantry Chapels were a common sight in Mediaeval England. They were built for pious travellers to give thanks for a safe arrival or pray for a safe journey. I understand there are chapels at Wakefield (much posher than Rotherham's), St Ives, and Bradford on Avon. I've also found mention of a bridge chapel at Derby.
Rotherham Bridge was built on the site of an old ford, and there may well also have been a narrow packhorse bridge there before it. I am sure that I have read somewhere that this was a toll bridge: the monks levying a charge to cross in return for the upkeep. There seems to be no record of the date the later bridge was built.
The Chapel of Our Lady was constructed upon the bridge in 1483. It was endowed under the will of John Bokying, Master of the Grammar School to the fine tune of '3 shillings and 4 pence' but it is reputed that Thomas Rotherham bore most of the subsequent costs. It was richly furnished and contained a statue of the Virgin and Child.
In 1547 Colleges and Chantries suffered the same fate as the Monasteries before them, and the chapel was suppressed and anything of value removed. The chapel survived because it was an integral part of the Bridge. It was subsequently allowed to become derelict and was then used as almshouses.
During the English Civil War in 1643, a battle was fought on Rotherham (Chantry) Bridge, between the Earl of Newcastle's Royalist troops and the townspeople with thirty boys from the Grammar School led by a Colonel Gill of Carr House for the Parliamentarian cause. The Roundheads lost and the town was occupied by the Cavalier army who subsequently sacked it.
By the 1680's the Chapel was in ruinous condition and, apart from minor repairs, remained that way for most of the next century. In 1779 the building was converted into the town gaol; two cells being formed in the crypt underneath whilst the Chapel itself became the Deputy Constable's quarters. In 1826 the town built a new Courthouse and gaol and the chapel was then used as a dwelling house until 1888, when it opened for business as a tobacconist and newsagent's shop.
In 1901 a petition signed by almost 1000 Rotherham residents called for the restoration of the Chapel. In 1912 the building was acquired by Sir Charles Stoddart, and in 1924 it was restored and reconsecrated as a chapel.
The bridge was regularly repaired over the centuries with arches being added and then taken away. A new bridge much wider and suitable for motorised traffic was opened in 1930 but this virtually obscures the remains of the old one.
In 1975 a new stained glass window was installed. It charts the history of the Chapel and town, and incorporates many family crests and the initials of people associated with the history of the Chapel through its many changes of use.
The dungeon in the crypt consisted of two tiny cells, one was windowless and there seems to have been two small windows to light the rest. There were no toilets - not even a bog hole so presumably you had to use a bucket. There's no water down there either except for what drips down the walls - no I lie the walls are quite dry nowadays. To get down to the crypt these days there is a very narrow steep and difficult descent - if it was as bad in the jail days it must have been fun trying to get a drunken or awkward prisoner into the cells.
For all you ghouls I'm sorry there are no chains or manacles, no instruments of torture and definitely no skeletons. Pity!
The Chapel on the Bridge is open occasionally. I am told that it is open for services each Tuesday morning at 11am.
Chapel of Our Lady on Rotherham Bridge Photographs (8 images)
