Monument record 2206/0/17 - St Mary Magdalene's Chapel (incorrect site)

Incorrect siting of St Mary Magdalene's Chapel

{1} (TL 0622 8590) St Mary Magdalene's Chapel (LB) (site of) (1)

{2} There is no evidence for there ever having been a chapel of St Mary Magdalene at Armston; and the site marked by the antiquity symbol has been excavated (a), when all that was found was "the remains of a row of small cottages - nothing ecclesiastical".

The OS publication is therefore certainly wrong: the name seems to be a mistaken reference to St Mary Magdalene's Chapel (TL 08 NE 15) at Ashton (2 miles to the north, and a very similar name; this confusion of Armston and Ashton has also occurred at V C H Northants 3 102 and n 9a), perhaps aided by the altar of St Mary within St Leonard's Chapel (V C H 3 101); and the siting, placed as it is centrally within a moat, appears to be mere guesswork influenced by reported ecclesiastical remains which are connected with either St John Baptist's Hospital (TL 08 NE9) or St Leonard's Chapel (TL 08 NE10).

{3} No further information.

{4} RCHM Inventory accepts probable identification of this site as the site of a hospital of John the Baptist.

<1> Ordnance Survey Map (Scale/date), OS 6" 1958 (Map). SNN112944.

<2> Seaman, BH, 1969, Field investigators comments, F1 BHS 03-SEP-69 (Notes). SNN111907.

<3> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1975, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p. 86/Site 5 (Series). SNN77379.

<4> Historic England, Unknown, Oral information, correspondence (not archived) or staff comments, S D Londesbrorough (Letter 9 8 60 and verbal information to F D Colquhoun 19.5.62) (Oral Report). SNN111577.

Record last edited

Feb 17 2025 6:13PM