About Us

St Catherine's Chapel, also known as King Athelston's Chapel, or The Chapel Royal, is the oldest remaining part of Abbey Milton. The present building originates from approximately 1170 and probably replaced an earlier wooden church. It is located on a level piece of ground, surrounded on three sides by a ditch on the hill to the east of the present Milton Abbey Church. It is dedicated to St Catherine of Alexandria as are many churches on hill tops. St Catherine was martyred in Alexandria in Egypt by being broken on a wheel and is said to be buried at the top of Mount Sinai.

In 934 King Athelstan of Mercia and Wessex, and soon to be King of All England, founded a religious community at what we now know as Milton Abbas. This was probably a minster and could well have been established in the enclosed area surrounding the chapel do not know why he founded this community and various reasons have been put forward such at in response to a dream of future victory in battle, in remorse at the untimely death of his step brother or in memory of his mother. In 964 there was a major reorganisation of religious communities in England and one of the first was the community at Milton which was refounded as a Benedictine Monastery at the direction of King Edgar and Archbishop Dunstan of Canterbury. The monks came from Glastonbury Abbey and may well have moved the establishment down the hill near to the site of the present Abbey Church.

The chapel originally consisted of the chancel only but was soon enlarged by the addition of a nave. Over the years the height of both the chancel and the nave have been raised and modifications made to the windows. Those in the chancel were blocked up and the easternmost ones in the nave enlarged in the seventeenth century.

 The chapel was a pilgrimage chapel, probably for women who would not be welcomed into the, all male, monastic buildings for fear of causing temptation. The inscription on the west door post of the south door grants an indulgence of one hundred and twenty days for pilgrims coming to this holy place. The indulgence was possibly granted by Archbishop Robert Kilwarby of Canterbury when he visited Abbey Milton in 1277. The inscription is repeated on brass plates fixed to the inside of the two doors during a restoration of 1793. 

At the suppression of the monastery in 1539 the chapel was probably converted to secular use. At various stages it was used as two cottages, a carpenter’s workshop, a wood store and a pigeon house. It was restored as a chapel in 1901/2 by the Vicar of Milton Abass, Rev Pentin and Sir Everard Hambro, the owner of Milton Abbey.

The Chapel is, like Milton Abbey Church to which it is closely linked, by Salisbury Diocese Board of Finance. The Chapel is a consecrated building but is not a parish church. It is used for services occasionally but is not registered for weddings. All enquiries concerning the Chapel should be made in the first instance to The Rev Lewis Pearson. ([email protected])