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Notes on Chapel at Alley St. Bathans, by John Turnbtjll, 

 Abbey St. Bathans. June, 1870. 



A field, about quarter-of-a-mile from the church and 

 ancient priory of Abbey St. Bathans, has always been known 

 by the name of " The Chapel Field." Sir John Sinclair's 

 Statistical account says — " About a quarter-of-a-mile from the 

 nunnery, on the same side of the water, lie the foundations 

 of a small chapel and yard holding that name, but there are 

 no marks of people having buried in it." And the later 

 Statistical account adds — " These foundations have now been 

 removed, on account of the obstruction they presented to the 

 operations of agriculture, but the field that contained them is 

 still called the Chapel Field." 



No person, now alive, recollects the ruins. From time to 

 time, however, in ploughing the field, stones have been turned 

 up, which apparently had formed part of the building, and 

 thus the site of the chapel was pretty nearly ascertained, but 

 it was only in the course of draining the field this summer 

 that the foundations were discovered, and they have been 

 fully traced, and are now exposed. The building is rectangu- 

 lar, forty-six feet six inches in length externally, and thirty- 

 eight feet internally, twenty-one feet in breadth externally, 

 and fifteen feet six inches internally. The north wall is 

 three feet thick, the east and south walls are about three feet 

 six inches thick, and the west wall is five feet thick. The 

 door has probably been in the middle of the west end, but 

 partly from nothing except the foundations remaining, and 

 partly from a drain having been cut through it before the 

 nature of the building was known, no trace of a door can 

 now be found. In the southern half of this west end wall 

 there is apparently a passage one foot eight inches broad and 

 about six feet long, entering probably from the doorway, but 

 it is difficult to see what could be the object of it, unless it 

 might lead to the stair of a belfry. On the south side, near the 

 west end, is a window three feet seven inches wide externally, 

 the sides of it being formed of free stone, well but roughly 

 dressed ; only two courses of these stones and the window-sill 

 remain. The sill must have been on the level of the ground. 

 Lime has been used in the erection of this window, but it seems 

 doubtful if the other parts of the structure have been so built. 

 The east end has been contracted by a two feet wall in each 

 corner, so as to form a small chancel ten feet wide by four 



