Benwell chapel

HER Number:
138

District:
Newcastle

Site Name:
Benwell chapel

Place:
Benwell

Map Sheet:
NZ26SW

Class:
Religious Ritual and Funerary

Site Type: Broad:
Place of Worship

Site Type: Specific:
Chapel

General Period:
Medieval

Specific Period:
C13?

Form of Evidence:
Documentary Evidence

Description:
The evidence for a medieval chapel is a 13th century documentary reference to a vicar of Benwell. Though some associate the chapel with the priors of Tynemouth, who held the manor of Benwell from the mid 15th century to 1539, the earliest actual reference to a chapel here is c.1663. Served by the curate of St. John's, Newcastle, it survived until demolition in c.1780. There is no information at all about its appearance or precise site. The recorded gravestones date between 1684 and 1759, from the period of ownership of the Shaftoes, who looked after the chapel for the good of the people of the village. The site is now occupied by the Mitre Hotel; it appears that the last of the gravestones was removed from the site sometime after 1977.

Easting:
2115

Northing:
6439

Grid Reference:
NZ21156439

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 138 >> H. Bourne, 1736, Newcastle, p. 113 J. Brand, 1789, Newcastle I, p. 111 E. Mackenzie, 1827, Newcastle, p. 151 Seymour Bell & John Bell, 1808, Plan of Benwell, 3/2a; 2b: show burial ground -Newcastle Library Local Studies Seymour Bell, 1834, Plan of Benwell, 3.8: garden -Newcastle Library Local Studies J.C. Hodgson, 1895,A Survey of the Churches of the Archdeaconry of Northumberland, Archaeologia Aeliana, Ch.II, 2, XVII, p. 247 W.H. Knowles, 1922, Benwell Tower, Newcastle, Archaeologia Aeliana, 3, XIX, pp. 97-8 J.W. Fawcett, 1925, Old Benwell Tower Chapel and its Graveyard,Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle, 4, I, pp. 53-6 M.H. Dodds,1930, Northumberland County History, XIII, pp. 211-212; Archaeological Research Services, 2010, The Mitre, Benwell, Newcastle upon Tyne - Archaeological Assessment and Building Recording