Bartlemas Chapel is a medieval chapel in serene grounds. A former leper chapel, it has a remarkable history of welcome to the afflicted and rejected.
The hospital with its chapel was founded by Henry I in 1126 and was rebuilt in 1329 in a form from which the windows survive. The hospital had accommodation for twelve lepers and a chaplain and was built in quarantine, well outside the eastern city walls. In 1329, Edward III transferred the revenue and the running of the hospital to Oriel College which had been founded three years earlier by his father. By the sixteenth century leprosy had virtually disappeared and the Bartlemas foundation evolved into an almshouse and refuge from the plague. During the Civil War and the siege of Oxford the Parliamentary army razed the almshouse to the ground, stole its bell, stripped the lead from the chapel roof and melted it down for shot. They used the building as a stable. Oriel, however, re-roofed the chapel and rebuilt the almshouse in 1649; two years later a fine oak chancel screen was added. In Victorian times, the chapel gradually slipped into secular use and had by 1870 become a cowshed. At the beginning of 20th century it was again restored as a place of worship, now within the new parish of Cowley St John.
Services
BCP Evensong, 5.15pm on the First Sunday of the Month (except January & August)
We also hold other annual and occasional services and concerts.
Bartlemas Chapel, Cowley Road, Oxford, Oxfordshire, OX4 2AJ