The chantry chapel has a mysterious history
From a Iron Age hill fort near March where a Roman battle was fought to a Cambridge park where the first football rules were invented. We are truly lucky to be in a county with such interesting history.
There is one property in Cambridgeshire which is considered an “unusual” medieval chapel with a mysterious history. Duxford Chapel, a Grade II listed building, is believed to originally have been a hospital. English Heritage describe Duxford Chapel as an “unusual medieval building with an enigmatic history.”
You may assume that the chapel would be located in Duxford, given its name but it is actually located between the villages of Whittlesford and Duxford, adjacent to Whittlesford Parkway railway station.
Evidence has found that a hospital founded by William De Colville next to Whittlesford Bridge was recorded in the 13th century and the chantry chapel is suggested to have been a part of it.
The chantry chapel was supposedly established as part of a hospital dedicated to John the Baptist, known as The Chapel of the Hospital of St. John.
Unlike a modern hospital, Colville’s medieval foundation was charged with offering accommodation to poor travellers as well as medical care to chronically ill or aged people, according to Britain Express.
In the 14th century, the hospital became a ‘free chapel’ and later in 1548 the chapel was suppressed during the dissolution of chantries by Edward VI. According to Historic England, it supposedly went out of use for seven years and then later it was brought back to use as a barn.
Today, the chapel is managed and owned by English Heritage and members of the public can visit the chapel .