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Summary

Former location of short-lived brick chapel, built for parishioners in about 1808 and used until the adjacent Holy Trinity church was completed in the 1830s

Associated Legal Designations or Protected Status

• Conservation Area: Holy Trinity, Theale

Monument Type(s):

• CHAPEL OF EASE (19th century - 1808 AD? to 1832 AD?)

Full Description

The history of Theale's medieval chapel is unclear, but in the 17th century the village's parishioners appear to have worshipped in Englefield church. When the Revd Dr Thomas Sheppard acquired the advowson of the parish of Tilehurst in which Theale lay in 1799, he organised the construction of a chapel of ease <1>. This was built of brick with a bellcote and was endowed to provide for a service once on a Sunday <1>. The chapel may have been constructed in 1805 or 1808, but certainly before Sheppard's death in 1814. It appears to have been located eastwards of the subsequent church, in what later became part of the Old Rectory gardens. A rectangular chapel is marked on the Tilehurst Enclosure map of 1817 <2>, parallel to the London to Bath road, and sited up against a north-south land division. A large property also existed at this time further east in the plot at the junction with Englefield Road. Both this chapel and dwelling were demolished after Sheppard's widow funded the building of the more elaborate church and rectory as well as the school.

This chapel of ease was possibly also the site of the documented medieval chapel; a reference is given to a local historian Mr Harrison noting foundations near the entrance gates of the churchyard <3>, though also believing that the chapel was on the site of the present church. Other documentary evidence Harrison had found said that the (first) chapel in Theale was demolished in 1808 <1><4>.

After Dr Sheppard's death, his widow Sophia Sheppard funded the building of a much larger church, The Most Holy Trinity at Theale. It is presumed that the brick chapel was demolished when the church and rectory were completed in about 1830.

Sources and further reading

Related Monuments

Associated Excavations and Fieldwork

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