Lumley Chapel Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids Lumley Chapel
The Lumley Chapel from the southeast
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OS grid reference	TQ 243 638
Location	Cheam, London Borough of Sutton
Country	England
Denomination	Anglican
Website	Churches Conservation Trust
History
Former name(s)	St Dunstan's Church, Cheam
Dedication	Saint Dunstan
Architecture
Functional status	Redundant
Heritage designation	Grade II*
Designated	28 August 1953
Architectural type	Church
Style	Norman, Gothic
Closed	1864
Specifications
Materials	Roughcast stone and brick Tiled roof

The Lumley Chapel is a very old church building in Cheam, a village in the London Borough of Sutton, England. It's no longer used for regular church services, which is why it's called a redundant church. This special building is looked after by the Churches Conservation Trust. It is also listed as a Grade II* building, meaning it's very important and protected. You can find the chapel in the churchyard of St Dunstan's Church.

History of the Chapel
Architecture and Design
Important Memorials
Nearby Features
Gallery
See also

History of the Chapel

The land where the chapel stands was bought by the Archbishop of Canterbury way back in 1018. People think the church was built soon after that. It was named after Saint Dunstan, who was an earlier Archbishop of Canterbury.

Around the 12th century, a side section called a south aisle was added to the church. Later, in 1580, a man named John Lumley, 1st Baron Lumley became the owner of the nearby Nonsuch Palace. He inherited it through his marriage to Jane Fitzalan. In the 1590s, Lord Lumley changed the church. He turned it into a special memorial chapel for himself and his two wives.

In the early 1700s, the church had a main area (chancel), a south chapel, a main hall (nave), a south aisle, and a tower. Later in that century, some parts of the church were taken down and rebuilt. For example, the south aisle was removed and replaced with a wider nave. A new north aisle and a south porch were also added.

In 1864, a brand new church, also called St Dunstan's, was built nearby. Most of the old church was then taken down. However, the east end of the chancel was saved. This part was kept to hold the important monuments and brass plaques from the original church. This remaining part of the old church became the Lumley Chapel we see today. It was officially given to the Churches Conservation Trust in 2002, so they could look after it.

Architecture and Design

The Lumley Chapel is the oldest building still standing in the London Borough of Sutton. It is built from stone and brick, partly covered in a rough plaster called roughcast. The roof is made of tiles.

The window at the east end of the chapel is from the 15th century and has three sections. On the south wall, you can see where an old archway used to be, which led into the south chapel. On the north wall, there are small pieces of a blocked-up window. These pieces are very old, possibly from the Saxon or early Norman times.

Inside the chapel, the walls are covered in plaster. Along the top of the north and south walls, there's a decorative band called a frieze. It's decorated with carvings of fruit and leaves. Above this is a cornice, and from there, the plastered ceiling rises in a rounded shape called a barrel vault. This ceiling is decorated with ribs and hanging ornaments.

Important Memorials

Monument to Jane Lumley

Inside the chapel, you'll find beautiful monuments made of alabaster and marble. These are dedicated to John Lumley and his two wives, Lady Jane Fitzalan and Elizabeth Darcy.

Lady Jane died in 1578. Her tomb is decorated with her family's coats of arms. It also shows pictures of Jane's three children praying in the chapel of Nonsuch Palace. John Lumley passed away in 1609, and his tomb also features his family's symbols. Elizabeth Darcy died in 1617. Her monument shows her lying down on the tomb. Detailed drawings of these three monuments were made around 1590 and can be found in Lumley's special Red Velvet Book.

Other memorials in the chapel include those for the Pybus family and the Antrobus family. There's also a monument for a merchant and philosopher named James Boevey (1622–1696) and his third wife. On the south wall, you can see a small plaque for Ann, the five-year-old daughter of Rev William Gilpin, who was a headmaster at Cheam School.

The chapel also has several brasses, which are engraved metal plaques. These date from 1450 to 1632. Among them are brasses for the Yerde and Fromond families. Most of these brasses are now just fragments on the floor. However, some shields and a small brass for John Yerde still exist. There's even a rubbing from 1837 that shows what the brass looked like when it was complete.

Nearby Features

The current parish church of St Dunstan, which is still active today, is located north of the chapel. It was designed by F. H. Pownall and is also a Grade II* listed building. The entrance gate to the churchyard, called a lychgate, was built in 1891 and is listed as Grade II. In the churchyard, there are also three tombs, each listed as Grade II.