The Thorpeness Medieval Chapel

Records indicate that a Chapel was built in Thorpe, then a small hamlet. The Chapel was referred to in 1477 and named The Chapel of St Mary of Thorpe, also known as a Chapel-of-ease, recorded as a Chapelry of Snape Priory.

Dates of demolition have been disputed, the earliest being 1500, further dates in 1783 and dismantled in 1820. The site was ploughed in 1870 leaving a very small portion of the building.
In 1997 a documentary search established without doubt the location of the chapel. This was close to the east end of the Almshouses on the site of known as the Matrons House.

There has been evidence over the years of a cemetery to the west of the chapel. It has to be conjecture concerning identifying the boundaries of the cemetery, although there is no evidence of it extending under Old Homes Road. Locals have reported further evidence of the cemetery extending to adjacent gardens and the rear of the Almshouses, two skeletons were found in this area in September 1990 when a gas trench was dug and also further human bones were unearthed when an Almhouse had a bathroom extension built.

Although there is no evidence remaining of the chapel above ground, there is a field to the west of the Almshouses known as Chapel field, also the road running through the Almshouses known as Pilgrims Way, I wonder if this is a part of a route from Snape Priory via Thorpe Chapel to an Abbey in the Minsmere area built in 1182. This Abbey was later dismantled being vulnerable to the sea, it's materials were used towards building Leiston Abbey. The possibility of this route is unlikely to be substantiated.

​The term a 'Chapel-of-ease' relates to a church building, other than a parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the accommodation of increasing numbers of parishioners, or for those who live a long distance from the parish Church