St. Mary Magdalene's (or Magdalen's) chapel is the chancel of the church which originally served the inmates of the former St Mary Magdalene's almshouses. The original road ran to the north of the church but has been realigned on the south, cutting the church off from the original almshouses (which are now buried). It is built in the romanesque, or Norman, style of the 1100s. The rest of the church extended left from the facade on the picture, and had to be demolished in 1861.
The leper colony of St Mary Magdalen at Wotton, also known as the Hospital of Dudstone, was founded in the early 1100s, probably by Walter of Gloucester. In the early 1150s the hospital received support from Roger, Earl of Hereford. Because of his family's close connection with Llanthony Secunda Priory the hospital came under the control of that Priory.
At the Dissolution of Llanthony in 1539 the Crown assumed the responsibility for the hospital and its inmates. In 1546 the revenue was £3-6-8 which is recorded in 1563 as maintaining a reader and six poor men and women. By 1598 records indicate that the hospital was in a derelict state. In 1614, however, the Governor, Alderman Thomas Machen, was personally maintaining a further 13 incumbents. He died in that year, and bequeathed £100 to the Corporation of the City to provide 6d a quarter to each resident.
In 1617 King James I, ever thrifty, transferred the responsibility for the hospital, with a pension of £13, to the City Council, provided that the hospital was renamed King James' Hospital. The name hardly stuck, however.
Provision was made in 1636, under statutes for the government of the hospital, for ten men and nine women residents. Each received weekly pay of 1/6.
By 1833 the hospital was again ruinous, due to shortage of money. The main London Road had originally run north of the chapel, but had been moved to it’s present alignment in 1821, cutting the chapel off from the quadrangular building of the hospital itself, which stood just east of the modern garage. It merged with St Margaret's (further down London Road) in 1861. The hospital buildings were demolished at this time along with the nave of the chapel.
The original chapel was built in the early 12th century as a simple two-cell structure. In the 13th century a lancet window was inserted in the north wall, and the east window was enlarged during the 15th century. In the 1500s a new window was added on the south. A brick porch was added on the west in the late 18th or early 19th century, and a small bellcot to the west housed a bell cast in 1793 by Abraham Rudhall of Gloucester.
By the 1840s the chapel was derelict and propped up. We perhaps owe it to the efforts of the British Archaeological Association that the chancel which we see today survived. They fought hard for the building during their Congress here in 1846. Follow this link to see a sketch of the chapel in 1852.|
Nonetheless, in 1861 the Council demolished the nave. The original elaborately decorated Romanesque south doorway was reconstructed facing east in the chancel arch, and the north doorway was set against the south wall of the chancel. The east window may have been restored at the same time.
On the exterior of the chapel is a range of carvings which have not been totally explained but are considered to be linked with pilgrimages. They include crosses and floral motifs.
The recumbent effigy of a young woman lies today in the chapel. It has long been identified, in error, as that of the Saxon St Kyneburgh as it originated in the long-demolished St Kyneburgh's Chapel at the Kimbrose. It is, on stylistic grounds, more likely to represent one of the daughters of Humphrey de Bohun who died young in the 13th century - Margaret or Isabella. The link with the de Bohun family came because the chapel had formed part of the original endowment of Llanthony Secunda Priory.
*Before decimalisation the pound was composed of twenty shillings (20s or 20/-), each of twelve pence (12d). There were 240 pence to a pound because originally 240 silver penny coins weighed 1 pound (1lb). A sum of £3 12s 6d was normally written as £3-12-6, but a sum of 12s 6d was normally recorded as 12/6.
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Last Modified: Thursday 03 May 2012