Monday 29 August 2016

Watts chapel and cemetery








This Grade 1 listed chapel was designed and created by Mary Watts along with the help of local villagers.


When Compton parish council created a new cemetery one of their residents, Mary Watts, offered to design and build a mortuary chapel. Mary, an artist, was the wife of Victorian artist and sculptor George Frederick Watts and it was he who financed the project.
Mary started to host 'terracotta home arts classes' in her studio, for local people. Her husband suggested that if they held a pottery class people might like to make simple patterns to decorate the Chapel and in  doing so would have a deeper connection with the building. Almost every villager was involved with the decoration of the Chapel under Mary's guidance







The whole of the interior is linked by the Tree of Life from the roots up to the Dome of Heaven, where the branches become vine-like and weave together in Celtic designs.

















21 comments:

  1. Wow that is amazing,I'm going to have to visit that place

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  2. So artful! I wish they still built places like that.

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  3. What a gorgeous building and great shots of it! Beautiful!

    Wishing you a Happy Week ~ ^_^

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  4. I am in awe of this chapel. The design, the involvement of the villagers in making it, the Watts family financing and creating the building, the beauty of the door, what a genuine work of art and worship.

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  5. Hello, what a gorgeous chapel. The details inside are beautiful. Great photos and post. Happy Monday, enjoy your new week ahead!

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  6. I love the idea of involving the villagers, and the result is simply wonderful. Thank you for sharing it with me. :-)

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  7. That's a wonderful chapel - I love all the history in your part of the world, and sometimes miss it since I live in such a new city.

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  8. Amazing detailed work on this chapel - the lily is gorgeous

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  9. What a beautiful chapel made all the more special because so many creative hands played a part in the lovely designs.

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  10. Very artistic church. Lot of amazing works here.

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  11. They must really have felt as if it was their chapel! And they weren't bad at the whole thing either, because it looks beautiful.

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  12. You found us yet another place of great interest. As a child |I remeber messing about with clay in the classsroom but can't imagine ever creating anything so wonderful as those carvings.

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  13. Great artwork ! I loved to do pottery, but then the oven broke down in my course and they closed !

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  14. So beautifully decorated, both in and outside! What a nice idea to get the people involved in it.

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  15. WOW---what an amazing chapel... I could spend hours and hours in there looking at that art work... I'm SO impressed. Thanks for sharing.
    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  16. That is a very unique looking chapel.

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  17. What a wonderful idea and gorgeous results.

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  18. Such beautiful detailed work. It is great that so many people contributed such time and effort into making it.

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  19. This is a very awesome post. I love the story about the chapel and it is such a beauty.

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