Monument record 10321 - Church or Chapel of St Chad

St Chad’s was a small church or chapel that existed by c1250 (6); and is thought to have been established by Henry III c1217 (4). No longer extant, it lay in the area in the north-west of the city known as the Crofts, the site of the present Royal Infirmary (CHER 10323) and although its status is uncertain it may have been parochial; it is thought to have had a conventual establishment attached, but the order of this group is unknown (6).

By 1318 St John’s had appropriated it (1). At least one source asserts that it was a non-parochial church or chapel (1). The church was mentioned in the late fourteenth century and c1500, but had probably disappeared by the 1530s, and certainly no curate was associated with it in the 1540s (6). According to Harl Mss 2125, 267b "it is now ruinated and not to be found. It stood in the croft over against the Black Friars, on the north side of the Watergate Street, next the Watergate" (3). By the early seventeenth century the exact site of the church had been forgotten; The land on which it stood "seven butts in Lady Barrow's Hey" was tithed to St Martin's in 1676 (4). This monument’s GIS location has been reconstructed by cartographic research (7).

<1> Jones, D., 1957, The Church in Chester 1300-1540, /8 (Book). SCH3106.

<2> Ormerod, G., 1882, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester, Ormerod G 1882 1/354 (Book). SCH1389.

<3> Morris, Rupert H (Rev.), 1894, Chester in the Plantagenet & Tudor Reigns, /164 (Book). SCH946.

<4> Alldridge N.J, 1981, Aspects of the topography of early medieval Chester, Alldridge N J 1981 64/5-31 (Article in Journal). SCH5931.

<5> Clay R M, 1914, Hermits and Anchorites of England, /208-209 (Book). SCH1340.

<6> Lewis C.P & Thacker A.T. (eds), 2005, Victoria County History - A History of the County of Chester: Volume Vii, The City of Chester - The City of Chester, Culture, Buildings, Institutions (Book). SCH6522.

<7> Mapping Medieval Chester Project, 2011, Digital Archive of Mapping Medieval Chester website (Digital Archive). SCH6761.