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Canterbury
 

Canterbury, Nunnery Fields Hospital Chapel

Photo: H Richardson, Sept 1991

  • Formerly large entrance turret bell and swing chime chapel bell
  • Formerly 2 bells. Larger bell over entrance turret fate unknown during WWII, smaller chapel bell used in Chislet 4th in 1970.
  • Grid Ref: TR150567
  • Formerly City Union Workhouse

Prior to 1970
Bell Weight
(most recent)		DiameterDateFounderRetunedFate
Single Bell½ cwt approx.11⅞"19th CentUnknownNeverBlank. Scrapped 1970 to offset cost of Chislet 4th

Even earlier
Bell DateFounderFate
Single BellUnknown"fine, large bell" (Jim Stockbridge)

History
1848 Work started on building the City Union Workhouse, opened in 1850. It was designed by Hezekiah Marshall and was a two-courtyard design accommodating around 400 people. A chapel was built and at some point equipped with a bell in an enclosed turret, hung for swing chiming with a lever.
1930 The site became a Public Assistance Institution known as "The Home".
1945 The hospital chapel was used as the interim parish church of St Mary Bredin until the new St Mary Bredin church was opened in 1957.
1948 The Home joined the National Health Service as Nunnery Fields Hospital, providing geriatric care.
2001 The hospital closed. The main workhouse block (including the chapel, which in the interim had been converted into the EEG unit) was demolished but the infirmary that was built in 1883 was redeveloped for residential use.


Love's Guide to the Church Bells of Kent Page updated: 2 September 2020