Default Image Place of Worship has been
Demolished.
Image by courtesy of
openclipart.org

St Margaret's Chapel (Demolished),
Stowe Road, Mork,
St Briavels, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

We believe the Chapel did NOT have a graveyard.

Note: any church within an urban environment may have had its graveyard closed after the Burial Act of 1853. Any new church built after that is unlikely to have had a graveyard at all.

Church History

This Place of Worship was founded before 1256, but we understand it was closed in 1547.

The site of this chapel is displayed prominently on early Old Maps. It was situated between St Margaret's Wood and Lindors Country House, which at the time I first prepared this account (2013) was a Christian Conference Centre, owned by the Christian Guild. It has since been sold to a new owner.

The Victoria County History series: A History of the County of Gloucester, Volume 5: Bledisloe Hundred, St Briavels Hundred, The Forest of Dean (1996), pp.247-271 (St Briavels) suggests the chapel was possibly established as a hospital (provider of 'hospitality') in connexion with the route from the Wye river crossing at Bigsweir. It was dissolved under the 1547 Act and in 1664 was bought by the owners of Mork Farm, but was later demolished, and no visible evidence of it now remains, apart from an indication on Old Maps.

A synopsis of the History of Lindors, available on the Christian Guild website posed (for me) the dilemma of how close to the River Wye the Chapel was, and on which side of the river. A former resident of St Briavels was similarly perplexed by another local feature - "the peculiar formation from Moses' Annetts at Hudnalls to a point where it skirts round Lindors House". He proposes that:

"At some time since 1760 the course of the River Wye has changed direction. It appears to run near Lindors House, where the present tennis court is now. The river formerly ran round the Lindors Farm, through Tufts Wood and near the present Bigsweir House. The famous horse shoe bend was obliterated by what was a great flood cutting through the neck of the bend and leaving near the weir what is known as The Island."

It is unlikely, therefore that when the chapel was providing hospitality, the course of the river was the same as now, or indeed as it was prior to subsequent floods. So on which side of the river would it have been? If it was on the west side, perhaps this would explain why a second Chapel dedicated to St Margaret is to be found nearby to the east, at Stowe - the medieval equivalent of a Motorway Service Centre for both sides of the carriageway?

Denomination

Now or formerly Medieval Chapel.

If more than one congregation has worshipped here, or its congregation has united with others, in most cases this will record its original dedication.

Maps

This Chapel was located at OS grid reference SO5492605368. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• St Margaret's Chapel (Demolished), St Briavels shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in St Briavels shown on a Google Map.
• Streetmap.co.uk (arrow on map shows the Place of Worship's location) (verified 2018-10-15)
• Bing (Ordnance Survey option) (verified 2018-10-13)
• Bing Maps ('Bird's Eye' View) (verified 2018-10-15)
• Ordnance Survey "getamap" (NB some of the 'Change Map' options may require a subscription) (verified 2018-10-15)
• OpenStreetMap (Maps © OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA) (verified 2018-10-15)
• A Vision of Britain Through Time - useful for Boundary Changes (verified 2018-10-15)
• www.magic.gov.uk (Modern Maps with various overlays) (verified 2018-10-15)

Resources

I have found many websites of use whilst compiling the information for this database. Here are some which deserve mention as being of special interest for St Briavels, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• The Victoria County History series: A History of the County of Gloucester, Volume 5: Bledisloe Hundred, St Briavels Hundred, The Forest of Dean (null) (verified 2018-11-06)

The above links were selected and reviewed at the time I prepared the information, but please be aware their content may vary, or disappear entirely. These factors are outside my control.