Rock Chapel Of Our Lady Of The Crag, Knaresborough
The incredible 15th century rock chapel of Our Lady of the Crag, Knaresborough was carved out of the sandstone cliff.
The chapel, dedicated to St Mary, is a Grade I Listed Building that is reached via a narrow path and steps from Abbey Road.
The Chapel has a carved altar with a canopied niche, gargoyles, a vaulted ceiling, roof bosses, pillars with floriate capitals, a Celtic head, a piscina and externally a large carving of a medieval knight guards the entrance.
This Oratory Chapel, a place for prayer, was built possibly by a master mason, known as 'John the Mason' or 'John Mason', in 1408 or 1409.
The chapel was recorded in a charter of King Henry "John Mason received from the lord a piece of waste land below the quarry with licence to excavate there beneath the quarry in order to make a chapel."
Various versions of the legend of its creation exist, one of which is that John the Mason was working in the nearby quarry when he saw that a rock fall was about to engulf and kill his son.
Unable to reach him in time, he prayed to the Virgin Mary and miraculously the stones changed direction and his son was saved.
John pledged to create a chapel as thanks for the miracle.
The details of what the chapel contained in its early years are not known, nor what happened to the original statue of Madonna and Child, if there was one.
It may have suffered the same fate as the statues of our Lady of Walsingham, Doncaster that was publicly burned during the Reformation, in the 1530s.
We do not know whether the figure of the knight was carved at the same time as the chapel, although there is no reason to think otherwise.
Neither do we know the origins of the carved heads inside the chapel, and exactly what they meant to their creators.
We do not know when the windows were added. However, with all its mysteries it is a rare and striking building, remarkable for having been hewn from the rock with altar and vaulted ceiling.
The chapel is reasonably well-known nationally, being mentioned in several travelogues and local histories from the 16th century onwards.
In 1540, soon after the suppression of the monasteries, the antiquary John Leland visited Knaresborough and recorded that he saw 'an old chapel yn a Rock hewed oute of the mayn stone' but no other detail is given.
Well after the Reformation there are reports of the chapel being well attended.
In 1952, the Chapel was designated a Grade 1 listed building, as a site of special historical or architectural interest.
An archaeological survey in the late 1990s confirms what was already known: that the Crag was the site of many rough dwellings over the centuries.
The rock provides one secure back wall for the shanty residences of poor people, and the evidence for this can be seen in the many post holes that still mark the sandstone of the Crag.
What use they made of the chapel we do not know but they were gone by the end of the Victorian period.
In July 2016, one hundred years after the chapel was endowed to the Catholic community, Ampleforth Abbey decided that it could no longer fulfil the requirements and responsibilities associated with the chapel and its land.
It was therefore decided that the chapel site would be sold to the existing volunteer committee, which would be constituted as an independent Charitable Incorporated Organisation, the site to be held and maintained both as a heritage site, and a shrine of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
On the 6th March 2017, the group were formally constituted as 'The Chapel of Our Lady of the Crag Trust', charity number 1171904.
Since then, the chapel has featured on many TV shows, including a segment for the BBC programme 'Songs of Praise' in January 2020.
Visiting the chapel
In normal times, the chapel is open to visitors on Sundays during the summer from 2 pm until 4 pm (usually from about Easter or the beginning of April to the end of September).
Access to the chapel outside these times may be possible depending on the availability of a volunteer.
Someone who recently visited the chapel said: “This medieval chapel is so tiny you could easily miss it. You reach it by climbing a steep, narrow pathway that threads its way through a herb garden.
”The herb garden is planted on the slope below the chapel, and is filled with plants that were, in times past, believed to possess curative powers. Each plant has a name label, and what ailment it would have been cultivated to cure.
”A candle-lit stone altar dominates the interior of the chapel. Dedicated to the Virgin Mary, there’s a statue of the Madonna and child above it, and above that a decoration has been carved into the roof, which creates the feeling of a vaulted ceiling.
”There are also wall carvings, and niches containing candles and icons.
”This peaceful little chapel only takes a few minutes to visit but is well worth it. Entrance is free, or you can leave a donation if you want to.”
If you’d like to visit, the address is: Abbey Rd, Knaresborough HG5 8HY
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