The Chapel
Before the sale of St. Monica’s in 1926 the High Altar and the Mary Altar from the Priory chapel were removed and stored in a stable belonging to the Lamperd family before eventually being built into the altar in the new Catholic Church of Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Cecelia which was built in Blandford in 1934. For many years the Blandford and district Catholics had attended services at St. Monica’s pending the provision of their own church. Between 1926 and 1934 Father Henry O’Brien conducted services in a “chapel” on the first floor of the Old Manor House in Blandford St. Mary. The bells were also removed from the triple-arched belfry.
The villagers who in 1927 bought the 90ft strip of land which included the chapel had intended to use the chapel as a village hall and it does seem to have been used as such for a short while: the WI minutes in 1927 recorded a discussion as to whether the right transept might be made into a cloakroom. However, religious superstitition meant that it was not a success. “People swore they dreamt that the devil would haunt the chapel if it were used for such secular activities as dances and whist drives.” In 1928 the chapel was exchanged for the Priests House and became part of Mr Balcomb’s property.
During the War, when troops were stationed in the village, the Chapel was used as a cookhouse.
There is a curious story (Appendix 42) concerning the altar top which was apparently too tall to fit into the new Blandford church. “Along the side of the Greyhound Inn is a sweet garden containing a strange relic reputed once to have been brought from the Roman Catholic church removed from Spetisbury. It had there been an altar top. It had been stored in a stable at its first dismantling. When later it was found to be of a wrong size for its intended new position the birds gained an ornament in which they could nest.”
Miss Winifred Conyers was given permission to erect it in her garden where it stood for at least 30 years as the centrepiece of a rockery, topping several rock pools. It was carved out of oak and stood over four feet high. At one time six angels with outstretched wings adorned pinnacles around its dome. Miss Conyers’ father, the late Mr. Arthur Conyers, gun maker and head of Conyers garage, had four pillars and a thatched roof erected around the altarpiece to protect it from the elements. Into its dome he cut two small holes hoping that it would make an attractive nesting place for birds.
The two remaining angels are now in the possession of Nick Conyers of Spetisbury.
The altar top in Miss Conyers’ garden about 1970