FEATURE - Oxborough Family Chapel

 

On a recent visit to Oxborough Hall, to see the snowdrops in the wooded dell there, we looked into the Family Chapel. This is not a property owned by the National Trust. The Bedingfield family who originally built the Hall have lived there five centuries. They were, and still are, Roman Catholics, and became reluctant recusants during the Reformation and beyond. Until the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 began the reintroduction of Catholicism into British society. This brought about a huge surge of building of Catholic churches and cathedrals. 

In the 1830's, a good twenty years before Catholicism was completely restored, the Bedingfields began to extend and restore the house, with the help of Augustus Pugin, The family built themselves a new Roman Catholic Chapel ( not by Pugin ) where this rather glorious Antwerp triptych can be found. Assembled from various bits of 16th century Dutch carvings and paintings, it rather captivates the attention the moment you arrive. If you have never been to see Oxborough Hall then do, it is the most fabulously eccentric gothic pile in the Trust's possession. You could imagine Mervyn Peakes's Gormenghast taking place within its crenelated walls, grand tower and bailey with a surrounding picturesque moat.