Wardour Chapel: Low Mass

Even the modest exterior of the chapel on the right would not have been seen
when it was first built, before the Catholic Relief Act.

I have more to say about the FIUV in Rome but I break off to blog about my trip to Wardour last Saturday, to attend a Low Mass celebrated by Fr Philip Thomas. Old Wardour Castle (not far from Salisbury) was destroyed in the English Civil War, but the family seat before and after that was a haven for Catholics and the new, 18th century house included a truly splendid chapel which served a local area with a high density of Catholics thanks to the protection of successive Lords Arundell of Wardour.



Sadly the title died with a heroic Lord Arundell who contracted tuberculosis in Colditz Castle in the Second World War. The house was sold but the chapel is the property of a special trust, and as well as Ordinary Form Masses twice a week there is a quarterly Tradtitional Mass there on a Saturday.



It is the finest private chapel in the country, splendid in the deepest sense of the word. The Altar was made in Rome and shipped over.



I hope to see more Masses in this historic chapel.

A warning to ant-Catholic zealots thinking of disrupting Mass.