The Easter break has arrived, the work-related course is finished, my completed portfolio with every T crossed and every I dotted is winging its way to be moderated. The pressure of homework has lifted and I’m feeling a little sense of freedom, unlike my students who should be furiously revising for their forthcoming exams. Time to roam with camera in hand and appreciate some local sites while the sun’s out and the wind is blowing.
Rather than use the busy A3 road when I drive to Guildford, I take a shorter, more rural route which was probably the old original way, weaving as it does from the village of Compton up to the Hogs Back. It’s called Down Lane but as I’m approaching it from the bottom end, so to speak, I always go up Down Lane which never fails to amuse me. I’m easily pleased.
However, there is something rather special about Down Lane. A local treasure nestles here amongst the Surrey Hills, surrounded by fields and partially hidden by high hedges. I drive by frequently, have visited several times and marvelled but I’ve never taken pictures until now. This place should be shared, after all.
Built from local red brick and completed in 1904, The Watts Chapel is approached from a lych gate along a twisty, uphill cobblestone path sheltered by giant yew trees. It’s an unusual, almost incongruous building, in a village where so many of the houses date back some five hundred years. Drawing nearer it is apparent that this little chapel is a testament to Art Nouveau and the Arts and Crafts Movement.
It was the brainchild of Mary Seton Watts, wife of the Victorian painter George Frederic Watts (more about him later) who designed and decorated the chapel with the help of around seventy eager Compton villagers: a true and very early community art project.
The outside is adorned with intricate stylised brick work, each finished by a local hand, probably an attendee at one of Mary’s Thursday evening pottery classes. The faces on the stone work are all different; the feeling that this was a collaborative effort is reinforced. Either side of the main entrance are two curved stone benches in Art Nouveau style, the mossy patina only enhancing their design.
But it is inside the small circular chapel where the extent of Mary’s mission can be fully appreciated. I’d defy anyone not to gasp as the full impact of her vision comes into view as light floods in through the tall narrow windows throwing rainbow beams across the heavily decorated walls.
It is here that Mary has brought together angels of darkness and light, heaven and earth intertwined by the tree of life with its roots at the bottom and the branches curling ever skyward to embrace the angels nearest to heaven.
Many of the floral decorations around the mid rail were created by children under Mary’s guidance; her tree was fashioned from chicken wire and covered in plaster then painted in the same vibrant jewel colours that we can see today.
The altar carries an inscription and dedication from Mary to the people of Compton. Today the chapel is used for funerals – there is a lone bell reserved for such an occasion. The tolling of the iron bell…
Outside in the cemetery, the chapel is surrounded by gravestones old and new, some of which follow the Arts and Crafts design. George and Mary Watts are buried here, in front of the magnificent Cloisters. A simple gravestone marks the place.

The gravestone of George and Mary Watts. He died in 1904 just as the chapel was completed; Mary died in 1938.
Mary and George Watts had settled in a house, Limnerslease, just across the hill from the chapel in the early 1880’s. George Watts was already an established Victorian painter so he was able to fund the building of the chapel for the village of Compton by selling commissioned portraits. He opened his own gallery – The Watts Gallery (as it is known today) – in Down Lane to display his paintings. Mary concentrated on her pottery – she had been a student at the Slade school of Art and was already forging her own style before she met George.
The gallery, which was recently the subject of complete restoration thanks to some lottery funding, is a testament to George’s prolific output as a painter. He was heralded in his lifetime but was never part of any one particular group or movement. His paintings are typical of the period – stern looking portraits, Italianate landscapes and dead animals. Not my particular cup of tea but definitely worth a look.
So, Down Lane is more than just my shortcut into town – it conceals this beautiful legacy to the Arts and Crafts Movement as well as a gallery full of noted Victorian paintings. Imagine my horror then, the last time I took this route, when confronted with these hideous carvings.
The residents of Down Lane have clearly let their association with the Watts’ go to their head. These hastily fashioned paintbrushes are, I presume, a nod to George. To me they look more like a left-over from one of those chainsaw competitions where tartan-shirted lumberjacks have to carve something recognisable within thirty seconds. And two more things about this irks me: part of an old hedge has had to be removed to make way for these monstrosities and the ghastly over-sized metal green sign is depicting Down Lane as anything BUT quiet. It looks monumentally busy, with children aimlessly wandering or cycling the middle of the road.
I‘m just off to make as much noise as possible and drive as recklessly as I can in the designated restriction free zone.
Happy Easter All!
What a beautiful chapel. I suppose this is something like what I imagined the family chapel in Brideshead Revisited would look like.
Sadly, I doubt there are individuals today with the talents to recreate a structure similar to this today. In our age of automation, we have little place for the blue collar artisans of the past.
Thanks for posting the pictures and for the history. A wonderful little church, indeed.
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed the history. This little gem is just a few miles from home – consequently, it’s taken for granted. I’m so pleased to have taken a few snaps to share here.
What a beautiful building – as you say, breath-taking, even just from the photos. Good to hear that your course is finished. Congratulations and Happy Easter! 🙂
Congratulations may be slightly premature – let’s see what happens with the moderation! Happy Easter to you too, Lynette, glad you enjoyed my snaps 😊
I’m so happy you have a break, and time to roam with your camera, Jenny. You’re an excellent tour guide!
What a beautiful chapel and grounds. Thank you for sharing.
Congratulation on finishing your course. 🙂 Have a wonderful Easter.
Happy Easter weekend to you too, Jill. It’s always fun to take you all on a tour with me 😀
I’m very jealous! I’ve always wanted to get to the Watts Chapel but have never managed it. Great photos too! I’ve flipped your post here:
https://flipboard.com/@tristramshapard/designs-of-the-time-p39mm54ry
Oh, thanks for the flip – I feel very honoured. Do try and get there, the gallery is worth a visit too – and there’s a very good tea shop. Definitely worth a stop off if you’re heading west!
I have always liked the Arts and Crafts Movement. There are some lovely houses in America. Our first house was a bungalow a while back. I love the architecture. But I have never seen a chapel like that one. Nice. But those paintbrushes are hideous. Probably some patrons trying to be “artsy.” Those are also in America. Artsy patrons. Yuk.
I had a feeling you’d feel the same way as me about those brushes!
I can picture some of the traditional American houses. With weatherboarding, verandas and swing chairs. Gone With the Wind, that sort of thing. Or is that just a very English view of things?
Actually you are picturing our house pretty well! No weatherboarding. Brick, But the big porch and sort of Gone With The Wind. They call it a Charleston house. (South Carolina)
I can picture it! Stylish, Hollis. I’m not surprised xx
Oh this is so beautiful. I love the Arts and Crafts Movement. Why didn’t I know about this place when I lived so close to it? Your photos of the lovely architectural details are fabulous. I am making a note of this place so that I can visit on my next trip to the southeast 🙂
Thank you!
Jude – your camera would do this justice! I insist you put it at the top of your list. There’s a great teashop too, and you can book a tour of the house at Limnerslease. Marvellous!
Definitely on the list. Thanks for bringing it to my attention 🙂
I enjoyed this post, Jenny. I learn things from you and they make me think and slow down to pause, too. Hope you have a special family celebration and enjoy a wonderful Easter weekend!
Thanks Robin. You have a lovely Easter too.
I came back to peek to see if you had any new posts, since often I don’t find my friends in my WordPress Reader. Your photographs, both featuring the colored designs of angels Mary brought out of the darkness into the light and the ones with the knots in sepia are all so detailed and exquisite. I don’t think I thanked you for sharing these the first time.
Ah Robin, thank you, that’s so kind of you 😊 I often have trouble with my WordPress reader – in fact, I’m quite fed up with it as I seem to miss several posts of people I follow. And now I’m not getting comment notifications like I used to which could end up being embarrassing if folk think I have ignored them.
Very enjoyable to read such a knowledgeable and eloquent description of the chapel that I visited about 35 years ago when living in Wimbledon. You should do more photography too 🙂
Thank you, Derrick. My photographic skills amount to point and shoot – nothing too technical, I have to say. I wonder if you saw the gallery too, all those years ago.
No – I didn’t know about the gallery!
One of Surrey’s hidden treasures. An excellent place to visit. I thought the pictures were really good. I agree; the paint brushes are just ghastly.
Definitely a treasure. I think we are pretty well served for Arts and Craft examples around here, what with G Jeykell as well. It’s knowing where they all are, that’s the key.
What a very pretty place. So full of the personalities and personal histories of the Watts’. Thanks for presenting it, and them, here. Also, I’m with you regarding the paintbrushes … what were they thinking? D
Thanks. It really is a pretty place – the inside of the chapel is very difficult to photograph, being small and circular – I don’t think I’ve done it justice – it needs a technical photographer: there’s a challenge for you!
Pleased that you agree about the paintbrushes. Can’t imagine who voted for them.
Enjoy your freedom, Jenny. What a little gem. I wonder how many more such buildings exist, unknown in the main except to locals. The paint brushes are an abomination.
Ah, best word yet, abomination. That’s exactly what they are. The Watts Gallery actually has a brown sign off the A3, but the chapel doesn’t get a separate mention.
Jenny, I watch a TV series about Art Nouveau very recently which introduced me to this chapel – I thought it was beautiful then, but it didn’t show as much detail as you have, so I’m very pleased to see more of it – how lucky you are to have this treasure so close by!
I’m sorry to say that I missed that programme. I think there are special places near to all of us – just sometimes, because they are so familiar, we don’t see them properly. It was quite fun to pop in and take the pics, feeling like a tourist!
I can’t help but feel a little envy. First, once again I discover that your country’s social history is SO ancient, diverse, complex and breathtaking and second–lordy–it looks like spring. We’ve still got half a metre of snow on the ground here 🙂
Yes, I think spring is here although it seems to have taken a long time this year. No snow to speak of, at all this winter, in our neck of the woods.
Thank you for sharing this with us Jenny 🙂 Beautiful chapel; love all the detail (in the brick and the paintings) and being the romantic I am, I really like Mary and George’s story. Posts like this always make me want to catch the next flight to England 😀 Happy Easter to you and your family!
Happy Easter to you, too, Yolanda. Glad you enjoyed my little local tour. I’ll have to find some more treasures to blog about that don’t take me too far from home😉
Stunning pictures, Jenny. Especially the ornate border of the gravestone of George and Mary Watts. You have an unusual assortment of angles, shadows and perspectives. Thank you for taking me along on your adventure.
Always a pleasure Marylin, thanks. Happy Easter to you and your family 😊
What a fabulous place – and your photo/text tour really makes me want to go see. Those are some ugly paint-brushes!
thanks for showing us this unique place.
Happy Easter to you and your family.
Hope you are enjoying a Happy Easter weekend too. Perhaps this could be another place for you to add to your list when you visit England!
Nice post Jenny, and beautifully photographed. Great job. It’s pleasing that this project is well maintained and documented when it could easily have been neglected.
I quite like the carved paintbrushes. I understand how it is though when a quiet place special to a few becomes ‘outed’ like that.
Ah, thanks Roy. You’re right about the neglect – I think the gallery was in a pretty sorry state before the lottery funding. You are however, in a bit of a minority as far as the paintbrushes go … enjoy your Easter weekend 😄
Stunning photos and I loved the tour. It is very ornate, but also gorgeous. Jenny, I agree on the carved paintbrushes. To me, they look more like the posters we had at the end of our beds when I was growing up. 😉
Yes they do look more like furniture, don’t they. Hardly appropriate for the delicate and ornate art that they are trying to signify. Thanks for dropping by and taking the tour with me!
Totally my pleasure. 😉
Gorgeous, Jenny, and wonderful commentary and information to go with the photos. I hope you’re enjoying your break.
Hi Gwen – you’re very kind, thanks! Yes, I’m enjoying the break. How are your classroom days going? I imagine you are extremely busy with planning etc. no one realises quite how much time teachers put in outside the classroom. Happy Easter😊
Well done with the portfolio and good luck with the results. Looks like a perfect day to visit the chapel and appreciate the way the light falls inside it. Great design, and not just in the design, but the inspiring so many people to help build it.
Thanks Denise. Sometimes these places right under our noses get a bit forgotten as we go further afield to see things. Was good to take time here and have a proper look.
Happy Easter Jenny hope you managed to recharge in during the small break and you kept your duties at the chapel Always interesting read for little places we all know and not often visit Xx
Thanks Doron, happy holidays to you too.
What a beauty. I love to meander through cemeteries and old churches. The art and artistry of even the smallest details becomes magical. Happy Easter.
Hope you had a good Easter Renee, thanks for joining me on my little jaunt to this pretty little place.
Helloooooooo, Jenny! I am trying to figure out how to do the Star Trek thing and beam myself over to this chapel. I could spend days here…
And of course, we’d have to have tea! Beautiful photos. I especially love the shadows in the 1st (chapel and graves) and 11th (cloisters).
I’ve missed your posts, too. I really had to restrain myself a couple of times, to keep from “peeking” just to see what you were up to.!
Ah yes, the tea shop. You’ll have to come over on a tea shop review writing trip. That would be as good as an excuse as any. I’m sure I could point you in several right directions!
It’s great that you’re back blogging … I shall look forward to your posts popping up in my reader 😉
Hi Jenny, I had no idea that this was in Compton! I love the photos and the tour you provided. I just looked on the website and it states that it isn’t open now but there are events on later this month. I agree your photography skills are excellent – the iPad again! By the way, how far is the gallery from where we usually have lunch?
About half a mile – worth a wee detour next time you’re down this way. iPad photography is definitely the way forward – at least for me!
Oh you rebel you Jenny! I would be there right with you! I agree…what’s with those paintbrushes? But what a beautiful treasure of a place, your photos are gorgeous. I’m so pleased you are finished with your course work and can now relax a little. Must be such a relief, one I sense in this deligthful post. Thank you for taking me along with you, I thoroughly enjoyed it 🙂
Aha Sherri, you’re always welcome, thanks. Yes, a little time for a relax during the holiday then back to exam fever – for the kids though, not me!
That’s great…and long may the sun shine for you, such beautiful weather we’re having at last 🙂
I know, how lucky are we. Even managed breakfast in the garden on Tueday!
😀
Amazing. Truly amazing. Thank you for sharing.
You’re most welcome!
[…] in Surrey. Not knowing that this little gem lay hidden close by in Down Lane, Compton. Jenny of CharactersFromTheKitchen introduced me to this architectural delight a few months ago and I knew I would have to make the […]
Thanks for the ping back, Jude xx
You are more than welcome Jenny, without you I would never have known about this place. Absolutely delightful.
I missed this last year’s Easter post, Jenny. Maybe we didn’t fully connect until later in 2015? Every photograph is splendid including exquisite details in the brickwork and colors found in beautiful stained glass and paintings.
Oops, Jenny! There was a 2015 comment and I saw new details in this year’s visit! Silly forgetful me! 😀
I know both the chapel and gallery well. Love your description and photographs. Both capture the essence of this fascinating area. The refurbishment of the gallery was needed, but it has lost some of its old atmosphere. Thanks for posting.
Hello there, thanks for stopping by to comment. You’re right, the atmosphere of the place has definitely changed – for one thing, it’s always so busy nowadays!