Monument record MDR4406 - Chapel (possible site of), King's Newton

"The presence of a building called The Chantry House and an endowment field called Chantry Close" (at SK 388266) suggests that a chantry of Melbourne church was situated at King's Newton. The church inventory of 1542 refers to the sale of 'Ye Chapell at King's Newton' and in 1549 there was a grant of land called 'Newton Chapell Yard'. Usher adds that "The Chantry House presumably stands on the site of the chapel" although he does not make it clear as to whether 'The Chantry House' is still in existence or not. (1) Chantry Close is mentioned in the 1840 Terrier and evidently in a deed dated 1673 as 'the Chantry Close' to which Cameron appends "named from the Chantry of St. Catherine." (2) The King's Newton Chantry appears to have been more like a chapel of ease since no person or family is recorded as the object of its prayers. It was first mentioned in 1238 as a chapel of Melbourne Church and was dedicated to St Nicholas. It is believed to have stood in Chantry Close, some distance north of Chantry House, which is likely to owe its name to having been part of the Chantry's endowment. (3) Research indicates that Chantry House had nothing to do with a chantry but was so named by a Victorian owner who, having 'prettified' the house in 1851, wanted a name to match, suggestive of antiquity. He therefore borrowed the name from a field on his farm called Chantry Close [centred at SK 38852672]. Chantry Close had not actually belonged to that house until 1708. It probably originally belonged to the chantry of St Katherine, and is not to be confused with the site of St Nicholas's chapel at King's Newton. This was apparently a chapel of ease, with no burial rights, and was done away with at the Reformation, being ransacked in 1552. Its site is lost, but from various later documentary sources relating to the chapel yard or to property adjacent to it, it was probably located just north of Elms Farm. It is possible that the site is that of a house platform recorded to the north of the present village as part of shrunken village earthworks [SMR 23232], but ploughed in c. 1980. Shortly after the ploughing, numerous small pieces of drilled stone slate were collected which could well have come from the roof of a high status medieval building. (4, 5)