File 21 - Chapel Court (excluding Carpenter and Morley Horder Buildings)

Laid out after the building of the Carpenter Building in the mid 1880s, in what was previously the Master’s paddock. A photo of c. 1889 (under heading “New Court”) shows a round central shrubbery bed, four spokes of path, and a square edging of pleached limes. The central bed and paths had gone by 1925, returned to grass, and the limes were removed in 1980.

The Carpenter Building was initially planted with ivy, but around 1930 this was replaced by a variety of ornamental climbers and shrubs. The shrubbery bed on the west side of Chapel Court took on its present form around 1977. The northern side had hawthorn and pink-flowered horse chestnuts, but latter were [“recently” in 1998] replaced by fastigiate oaks.

Another late 19C photo, of the southern side, taken facing towards end of Chapel, shows corner around end of Chapel occupied by trees and bushes, and a wide gravel path leading from Cloister Court - wider than today and with curved edge on southern side. Behind the bushes a wall ran across (making Chapel Court roughly square).

The sycamore and lime at that end of Chapel Court are said [1998] to have been there before the Morley Horder Building was built (1929-30)

Frances Wilmoth