The 900-year-old medieval chapel built for lepers

An historic chapel that was founded during the reign of Henry I and remains a key site for pilgrims and parishioners is celebrating its 900th anniversary.

Bartlemas Chapel in Oxford was first founded in 1126 as a site for lepers, and has gone on to serve pilgrims, the sick and those on the margins of society.

Over its 900 year history, the chapel was occupied during the English Civil War and converted into a pig shed - before being fully restored in the late 19th century.

Reverend Matthew Schrecker, who is curate at the Cowley St John Parish, said places like Bartlemas "continue to speak to us".

"They're places where people can find solace, where they can rest and pray, or where they can meditate if they're people of no particular faith," he said.

"They connect us to our past and the people who've lived, and I think they'll continue to connect us to people in the future as they look back on what we do."

Reverend Schrecker said Bartlemas was a "little medieval grey stone chapel tucked in a garden between some houses with a beautiful roof and stained glass windows".

"It's a place that people have been going to for pilgrimage and prayer for 900 years, and you really feel that when you enter. it."

He explained the site had first been founded in the 12th century as a leper chapel and hospital to care for people who needed to stay outside of Oxford's city boundaries "for reasons of sanitation and public health".

To mark its 900-year anniversary, the chapel is hosting events throughout the year - including talks about its history and place in the local community.

"The celebrations that we're keeping this year are really supposed to put Bartlemas back into the heart of the community," Reverend Schrecker said.

He said: "We want it to be a place that does still serve the community."

"We don't have lepers these days who are ostracised from society, but there are all sorts of people who are living on the margins still, and we want this to be a place for them."