Wardour Chapel
Home Background The Chapel Getting There Events
The Arundells originally came from Lanherne
in Cornwall. Sir Thomas Arundell was granted certain lands of Shaftesbury abbey in
1547 after the dissolution of the monasteries, although he retained clear
Catholic sympathies and was executed for plotting against Dudley, the
Protestant Duke of Northumberland in 1552.
His grandson, another Thomas, was involved in the capture of Esztergom in Hungary from the Ottoman Turks in 1595 and was
created Count of the Holy Roman Empire to the intense displeasure of Elizabeth
I, who promptly imprisoned him on his return for his effrontery in assuming a
foreign title. He succeeded his father
in 1598 and was subsequently created first Lord Arundell
of Wardour by James I.
At this period, the Arundells lived at Old Wardour
Castle, down in the valley, which was redesigned by Smythson,
who was working at Longleat at the same time. It was visited by Charles I, but subsequently
ruined in the English Civil War. The Arundells remained staunch Catholics, and the third Lord Arundell of Wardour was
imprisoned during the Popish plot in 1678.
During the 18th
century, the Arundells repaired their fortunes by a
serious of judicious marriages to heiresses.
Henry, eighth lord Arundell of of Wardour succeeded in 1756 at
the age of 16 while studying abroad at St Omer.
He married Mary Conquest of Irnham Hall in
Lincolnshire in 1763. His mother died in
1769, and after her death, he determined to build New Wardour
Castle.
After various
vacillations, he chose James Paine as his architect. Paine was a disciple of Palladio, and he
designed a house of proportion and elegant austerity between 1770 and 1775.
This part of
Wiltshire had at the time the largest Catholic population outside London. In 1780, the Vicar of Semley
wrote to the Bishop of Salisbury, in his annual return "should the number
of Papists seem large for this parish, which is not a populous one, your
Lordship will easily account for it from the vicinity to Wardour
Castle.". There were in 1780 43
Catholics in Semley and 324 in Tisbury; and Ansty was almost entirely Catholic.
Paine disguised the
chapel. A Roman Catholic place of worship at this period could not be
freestanding, and it was therefore placed in the west wing between bedrooms and
the laundry. Pevsner however observed " .... It is so grand in its decoration
that it seems to express consciously ...... The spirit
of the Catholic ecclesia triumphans " .
In the background was
Father John Thorpe, an English Jesuit resident in Rome. He wrote to Lord Arundell
2 or 3 times a month over a 24 year period; and was responsible for the
construction of the altar by Giacomo. Quarenghi. Lord Arundell
wanted a reticent altar in order not to offend Protestant sensibilities. Thorpe agreed. "Angels holding
candlesticks or crucifixes may look pretty in a drawing yet, if erected on an
altar will perhaps have too much of the puppet show in England ". He also opposed the erection of a baldacchino.
Thorpe chose Quarenghi to design the altar, which cost 600 guineas. Quarenghi was known
as "Palladio's shade upon account of his passion for that great
man".
Christopher Hussey,
in his Country Life article in November 1930, describes the altar as
"consisting of porphyry, agate and pietro duro.... the
tabernacle in the shape of a circular temple has a porphyry dome and jasper
columns with silver capitals and enrichments". The altar was shipped from Rome in bits and
was assembled on September 28, 1776.
Quarenghi went on to be
Catherine the Great's architect and was for instance responsible for the Peterhof in St Petersburg.
He was a curious figure and Fr Thorpe wrote to Lord Arundell
as follows " your Palladio is one of the most clumsy looking fellows that
your Lordship saw, passionately fond of music and ready to abandon everything
for it: he works when his clothes are in pawn and he has not a groat to pay for his dinner. The English artists watch their times to get
something from his pen. He is so full of
genius and fire that he cannot touch wine, drinks nothing but plain water, a
small glass of any liquor would raise him into a frenzy. Think, my lord, what a man I have to deal
with".
Fr Thorpe was also
responsible for various other items in the chapel:
Cades is normally
spelt Cadaz ; the other paintings in the nave are by Louis de Boullange and by Gerard Seghers ,
and four are ascribed to Gaspar de Crayer.
The altar contains
relics of SS Primus and Secundus sent by Alexander
VII in the 18th century.
The church was opened
by Bishop Walmsley, the Vicar Apostolic of the
Western district, on the feast of All Saints 1776 with ecclesiastical
ceremonial not seen by Catholics in England since the Reformation.
The Gordon riots in
1780 caused a fear that the chapel would be burnt. For a time, Lord Arundell
arranged a keeper of the peace to be present at all services. The rough pew at the back reserved for him is
still there. In this year, it was reckoned that the church served a
congregation of some 540 Catholics (compared to a total of some 40 or 50
Catholics in Salisbury).
In 1789, Lord Arundell resolved to extend the sanctuary end of the
church, and consequently commissioned John Soane. This work was completed by March 1790. The flanking tribunes supported on Corinthian
columns, the large segmented window behind the altar, the shallow dome above it
and the low galleried wings are his work. Soane’s
plasterwork and orders of architecture brilliantly extend Paine’s work but are
richer and airier.
During the French
Revolution Wardour provided a temporary refuge to a
number of émigré clergy, including the Bishop of St Pol-de-Léon.
The passing of the
Catholic emancipation act in 1829 allowed the Lords Arundell
again to play a part in public life.
In 1898 the church
was made over to a trust created by the 12th Lord Arundell.
In 1944 John Francis, 16th Lord Arundell of Wardour, died as the
result of wounds received in France in 1940, exacerbated by a long imprisonment
in Oflag IV-C (Colditz). He was repatriated by sea to Liverpool but
died before reaching Wardour. On his death the barony became extinct, while
the estate passed to Reginald John Talbot, great-grandson of the 9th Lord Arundell of Wardour through his
mother, Mabile Mary Arundell. In 1945 he changed his name by Royal licence
to Arundell and his son John Arundell,
Lord Talbot of Malahide, is the present chairman of
the trustees.
The mansion and a
small part of the estate were purchased by the Jesuits (a policy known as objet
d'Arcy), but they were unable to raise sufficient funds to adapt the house to
their purposes. The house subsequently
became Cranborne Chase School for girls, and has more
recently been turned into flats.
In 1963, £30,000 was
raised by appeal to restore the interior of the church. The American diocese of Baltimore with which Wardour has been linked since the 17th century contributed
generously.
Michael Hodges, based largely on “Wardour
- A short
history” by Philip Caraman SJ 1984