Odda's Chapel
Odda's Chapel is a surviving Anglo-Saxon church at Deerhurst in Gloucestershire. Earl Odda had it built for the benefit of the soul of his brother Aelfric, who died on 22 December 1053. Ealdred, Bishop of Worcester consecrated it; an inscription dates the dedication to 12 April 1056.
The chapel is now partly incorporated into a 16th or early 17th century farmhouse and was being used for accommodation when in 1865 its historic significance was realised. In 1885 Odda's Chapel was recognised as a chapel and disentangled from the farmhouse called Abbot's Court.
English Heritage maintains the chapel. It is a Grade I listed building.[1] It is in the larger Deerhurst Monastic Site protected heritage area, which includes the remains of the early Benedictine Deerhurst Abbey, Priory and St Mary's Priory Church.[2]
Restoration of the roof of Odda's Chapel started in 1965. Early photographs show that although the main part of the roof is 17th century there was an earlier design of 11th-12th century date which may be part of the original roof.[1]
There have been a number of excavations at Deerhurst since the 1970s. Items from the 1981 excavation led by Philip Rahtz are in Tewkesbury Museum.[3]
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Odda's Chapel) |
- Location map: 51.96694 -2.19194
- Odda's Chapel - English Heritage
- English Buildings: Deerhurst - Lost and Found
- A history of Odda's Chapel in Deerhurst
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 National Monuments Record: No. 115625 – Odda's Chapel
- ↑ Odda's Chapel - English Heritage
- ↑ Linnell, E. M. (1986), Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society; 104
- Nikolaus Pevsner: Pevsner Architectural Guides
