page_title: Chapel of Brasenose College, Oxford
section_title: Approaching completion
hierarchical_section_title: Chapel of Brasenose College, Oxford / Construction / Approaching completion
caption_attribution_description: English: Brasenose College, Oxford
context_page_description: The Chapel of Brasenose College, Oxford, dedicated to St Hugh and St Chad, was built during the seventeenth century, during Brasenose's second wave of building started under the Principalship of Samuel Radcliffe. It is believed to have replaced an earlier chapel where the Senior Common Room now is, and includes items of silverware from around the date of foundation. The chapel is in a mixture of architectural styles – Gothic, neoclassical, and baroque – and has not proven uncontroversial for this reason. The current chaplain is The Reverend Julia Baldwin.
  Radcliffe having failed to start work during his lifetime, his will set aside money and instructions for the construction of the new chapel on the south side of the college. For this purpose materials were taken from college properties – particularly from St Mary's College, which provided the hammerbeam roof and other materials for the project. The chapel and library cost together £4,000 at a time when college income was £600 a year. Disputes over the will and other problems meant that work on the construction did not begin until 1656, and was managed by the college bursar.
context_section_description: By March 1658 when work commenced on the library, the chapel was probably well forward, as evidenced by the purchase of "Bottle creasts" from Burford, probably the urns over the buttresses. It is, however, difficult to arrive at the rates of progress of the work in any detail, from the fact that an entry in the book of payments for various materials does not necessarily mean that they were built into the work at the date of the entry. The smiths' work and ironwork came from Birmingham to Banbury by water, and thence to Oxford. In December 1657, when the last payment for ironmongery is made, Nathaniel Brokesby, the schoolmaster of Birmingham, who took great pains to secure these materials for the college, received two pairs of gloves with black fingers, and a pair of white "kid's leather" gloves.
  The carving seems to have been completed by December 1658, for Symon White (who is evidently a superior workman, receiving 22d. a day, the highest wage paid to anyone, and who was the master carver) is no longer employed. No other carvers are mentioned, and as there is not a great deal of ornament, he may have done all the work himself, with the aid perhaps of his apprentices. Very probably he designed it also, and was, no doubt, trained in the new school of classic design, after the manner of Nicholas Stone, or any of the other carvers of that date, whose work could then be seen on St. Mary's Church porch, or elsewhere. Whether for temperance' sake or for other reasons bevers are now abated, and after this date John Jackson is not paid as overseer.
  The college was now in the midst of the lawsuit with Ralph Reniger, and the Book of Accounts was shown to John Jackson and John Hopkins at their examination before the commissioners.
  The total amount paid over to Bursar Houghton at this time seems to have been £2,260, made up as follows, according to the entry, but Houghton having disbursed £2,341 0s. 6d. the
  remainder is stated as still due to him.
  Some long timbers are bought for the "new Roofe of the Chapel", and plastering to the roof began on 14 June 1659. The design of the chapel ceiling must have been decided before now, and it would seem to have required considerable elaboration and contrivance, for Jackson, on 5 November 1659, gets £20 "for his modell of the Roof of ye new Chapple, & his paynes taken about
  it, according to the agreement made before the undertaking of it". From this it is probably that some entirely new work was added to the old timbering, otherwise an elaborate model, costing £80 or so, would not have been necessary. Jackson was also entrusted with monies to pay for certain work done, including "the frontispiece over the cloister door being of Burford Stone, with [the] Kings arms on a shield" – the door being the one leading out into School Street (now Radcliffe Square).
  Between the middle of June 1659 and August 1661 there are few entries in the records, indicative of only a little work taking place. By August 1661 the roof had been completed, and was then whitened. The interior of the building, however, had stood in the rough all this time, the ground had now to be levelled up, timber removed, and preparation made for the internal finishings. The panelling does not appear to have been put in till June 1662, when the joiners (who came from London) are paid and forty wainscots added at a cost of £63. Work went on for the rest of the year, £42 was spent on marbles, and the last item in the book is one of £23 for "wyre for the east, west, and north Windows", probably nettings to protect the glass.
  At the end of April the book is balanced up, and signed by Thomas Yate, Principal; Radol. Rawson, Vice-Principal and others. The interior of the chapel, however, was not yet completed. A further payment was made to John Wyld, the joiner, of £50 in 1664, also £30 to Simon White, the carver, for marbles, in 1665. In 1666, White gets £52 for laying the marbles, and in the same year there is the account for fittings, cushions, and similar. All these bills were paid by the Bursar, but do not come into the Book of Accounts,
caption: Illustration from 1675, showing the completed Chapel
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