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The 'Chapel Story' Project

We are keen to capture the history and interpret the heritage of the chapel at this point where its role in our community changes.

 

Our village's first church, the chapel is an intrinsic part of East Boldre's social history, founded in 1810 to serve our community's predominantly non-conformist congregation. More recently its services, Sunday school, Harvest Festivals and Carols by Candlelight was supplemented by a secular role that encompassed fetes, youth clubs, summer outings, barbeques, messy breakfasts and a Happy Hour for local Mums.

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We have been awarded £54,000 by the National Lottery Heritage Fund towards the Chapel Story project which includes

  • Repairs to building to address penetrating damp 

  • The installation of a kitchen to serve both the shop and Vestry community space which is now in daily use.

  • Key church records have already been transcribed and digitised so that they can be easily searched, analysed and shared online. 

  • Interpretation of the chapel's built heritage, in particular:

    • The architectural and historical features of the building.

    • Recording and deciphering the 52 severely eroded headstone inscriptions with professional archaeologists this summer.

    • Interpretation to recognise the 480+ graves, a third of which are children under 7.

    • Benjamin Biddlecombe's tomb - the only surviving marked grave.

  • A permanent exhibition of the chapel's history in the vestry space.

  • The chapel's history from 1810 to 1985 is documented in Eric Smith's booklet “A Light in the Forest”. A revised edition this book  will bring the history up to the present day and include details of the chapel's renovation and recent change of use. Footnotes to Eric's original text will incorporate our research.

  • We are partnering with St Barbe Museum who bring a wealth of expertise, knowledge and contacts who we can engage as advisors and participants in the Chapel Story project.

  • The heritage project is being led by Rebecca Gabzdyl, the founder of East Boldre Community Stores, who successfully managed the project to establish Chapel Stores.

Natural Heritage

East Boldre is surrounded by SSSI commoned land and nearby is Hatchett Pond, the New Forest's largest body of fresh water and home to nationally rare flora and fauna.

​The area was also an active centre of early aviation and evidence of this remains, for example the Beaulieu Letters' which this walk passes by.​

We created a walk that takes in the best of our local heritage including Hatchet Pond.

Gravestone Recording

Of the 500+ burials on the chapel site 55 gravestones remain; some are very eroded and no longer fully legible. ​

All of the gravestones have now been recorded using reflectance transformation imaging to reveal the full inscriptions and photogrammetry has been used to produce 3D models of each gravestone.​

We will hold a series of workshops for people keen to learn how to research family trees and use the gravestones as case studies and practical exercises.​

Digitised Chapel Records

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The old chapel records have been transcribed so we have electronic versions we can share online has been challenging at times given the faded handwriting. 

Heritage Interpretation

The chapel is a simple building with few decorative elements. During the building works to convert it to Chapel Stores we uncovered a few historic elements (the baptistry, graffiti by Idris Williams (Sunday School superintendant), ceiling roses etc)

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