Rycote, a Chapelry, in the Parish of Great Haseley, Union of Thame, Hundred of Ewelme, County of Oxford, 2½-miles (West by South) from the Town of Thame; containing 28-Inhabitants. The Chapel is dedicated to St Michael & All Angels. Built in the Perpendicular style it has retained many of its original 15thC features. It is also notable for its elaborate 17thC fittings which include 2-Enclosed Pews, one erected for the Norris Family and another said to have been installed for the visit of Charles I in 1625.
Rycote Chapel: The Chapel of St Michael was Built by the Quatremains of Rycote & remains Structurally unaltered. Rycote Chapel was Founded by Richard & Sibyl Quatremains & is said to have been Consecrated in 1449. It is, however, clear that an earlier Chapel existed at Rycote, a small Benedictine Chapel of around 1100. On 16th November 1295 Fulk de Rycote is recorded as Baptising his Son & Namesake in a Chapel at Rycote. The Nave, Chancel, & West Tower are of coursed & Squared Limestone Rubble, with Ashlar Dressings from the Taynton Quarries (nr Burford).
The Nave & Chancel form a continuous Structure of 5-Bays each separated by Pinnacled Buttresses, which rise above the Tiled Roof; in the side Walls are 5-windows of 2-arched cusped lights under sharply pointed Heads. The 5-light East window has Panel Tracery & is flanked by Buttresses surmounted by Chained Beasts. The South & West Doorways are relatively plain, while the 4-centred North Door (facing Rycote House) is more elaborate, with Quatrefoils in the Spandrels & a Hood with Blank Shields – an indication, perhaps, that the Building was conceived primarily as a Private Chapel. The Battlemented West Tower is of 3-Stages & has a 3-light triangular-headed window above the Doorway, surmounted by a canopied Niche. The 2-light Belfry openings also have Triangular Heads.
elaborate early-17thC Fittings & in the Chancel, part of the Reredos of 1682.
The Low Pews in the foreground are 15thC
The sumptuous Interior dates mostly from the 17thC when the Chapel was owned by the Norris’s & Bertie’s; the only 15thC Survivals are the Wooden Seating in the Nave & Chancel, the Base & Cover of the Font & the Base of the Rood Screen. The West Gallery was Erected c.1610, its Balustraded Front carved on Ionic Columns, while 2-elaborate Canopied Pews flanking the Entrance to the Chancel are of broadly similar date. That on the North, traditionally said to have been used by the Norris Family, has round-arched Arcading with Tuscan Balusters, and an Upper Musicians’ Gallery Screened with 2-Tiers of delicately pierced Filigree Panels; access to the Gallery is by the former Rood-loft Stair. The South Pew, reportedly set up for a Visit by Charles I in 1625, is equally Exotic & has an Ogee Dome with Crocketed Ribs. The Canopied Pulpit is also early-17thC, while a reset fragment of Flemish Painted Glass may date from the 1580s-90s. Depicting the theme of ‘Marriage for Gain‘, it may originally have belonged in the House rather than the Chapel.
The Chancel was refurbished for the Bertie Earls of Abingdon in the 1680s, when the Marble Floor was Laid. The Baroque Reredos (dated 1682) has a large segmental Pediment enclosing Carvings of fruit & flowers in the style of Grinling Gibbons & the Altar Rails have twisted Balusters. The Waggon Roof was painted with Stars, a fragment of which has been restored. Surviving Monuments commemorate Members of the Bertie Family & later Owners of Rycote Manor.
The Demolition of the 16thC House in 1807 left the Chapel largely unused, necessitating Periodic remedial Repairs. From 1911 it belonged to Owners of the remodelled Rycote House, its maintenance from 1952 falling to the Ministry of Works (later English Heritage). In 2005 responsibility was restored to Bernard Taylor, who undertook extensive Restorations & replaced the Organ.
Rycote Chapel
Gt Haseley Tithe Award Map of 1839
Rycote Chapel was Built in the perpendicular style & retains many of its original 15thC features. It is also notable for its remarkable 17thC Fittings which include 2-elaborate Enclosed Pews. The Pew on the North side of the Chancel, covered by a Musicians’ Gallery & known as the Norris Pew, is thought to date from c.1610. The Domed Pew on the Southside of the Chancel is believed to have been installed for the Visit of Charles I in 1625.
Following the Demolition of the Tudor Mansion at Rycote in 1807, the Chapel fell into a state of Disrepair. Writing in 1883, Frederick George Lee described it as being in “a great state of Dilapidation, the internal fittings having become Rotten & Destroyed & the Roof scarcely water-tight. Many copies of an old & rare edition of the Book of Common Prayer, viz. that Published in the 1st yr of King James I, remained there within my remembrance, lying tattered upon moth-eaten & inodorous Cushions”. Despite this, the Chapel Vault continued to be used as the Final Resting Place of the Earls of Abingdon & the Bertie Family throughout the 19thC.
It was not until the 1st-Quarter of the 20thC that the Chapel began to be Restored to its former Glory. The process of Restoration began under Alfred St George Hamersley (b. Gt Haseley) following his Purchase of Rycote Park in 1911. The Chapel was scheduled as an Ancient Monument in 1933. Further Renovation Works were undertaken by the Ministry of Public Works in the 1950s & 1960s before the Chapel was Officially Opened to the Public in c.1967.
This 1826 Engraving was produced by Joseph Skelton & H Winkler, from a drawing by Frederick Mackenzie & J Willis, and was Published a year later in Skelton’s Engraved Illustrations of the Principal Antiquities of Oxfordshire. The Building shown on the Left is the Tudor Stable Block which was converted to form what is now part of the current Rycote House. Artistic Licence has resulted in the disappearance of the Yew Tree which must have then stood before the South Side of the Chapel Tower.
Oxfordshire Way
Rycote to Oxfordshire Golf Course Club House – 1.2 miles (pdf format, 248 KB)
Oxfordshire Golf Course Club House to Tetsworth – 1.5 miles (pdf format, 213 KB)
In 1911 Rycote Manor turned into a spacious Edwardian Family Home for Col Alfred St George Hamersley MP by the Architects George Jack & William Weir. After his death, the House was Bought in the 1930s by Cecil Michaelis, whose father had been a Partner of Cecil Rhodes in South Africa. He further extended Rycote by occupying more of the old Stable Block, using the renowned Architect Goodhart–Rendel.
Cecil Michaelis mostly lived in France & latterly only spent Christmas at Rycote, later giving it to his 2-sons who lived there up to 2000, when they apparently fell out & Rycote was bought by Bernard & Sarah Taylor. Passing a small Pool in front of the House during the Tour, Sarah recounted that Max Michaelis had disabused her of the thought that it had been a Carriage Pond & revealed that it had been Built by his father as a Swimming Pool. Cecil also an Artist was studying at the Ruskin School of Drawing & Fine Art in Oxford. It remained one of his Residences until his death. Since Cecil had a number of Bohemian Artist friends, including Picasso, one could imagine some quite lively Swimming Parties! Apparently, while working for the SOE (Special Operations Executive) during the War, Cecil Michaelis was in France when he received a warning from his Controller, Colonel Leslie Beck, that he was about to be betrayed & should get out of France as soon as possible. Michaelis was apparently so grateful to Beck for potentially saving his life, that he allowed him to live out the rest of life Rent Free in the Old Bakehouse. According to Max Michaelis, Beck’s role was to interrogate Russian Spies when they were caught, which he did in the Cellar of The Old Bakehouse, where he would apparently use hallucinogenic Drugs to loosen their Tongues. To help them further, he planted a small Wood of Birch Trees around the House to resemble a Russian Forest, which in combination with the Drugs, made them feel as though they were at Home in Russia & reveal to Beck all he wanted to know.
In the 2000s Bernard & Sarah Taylor bought Rycote . The House by then had been subdivided into 2-Houses, 2-Cottages & an Architects’ Studio. With the help of Nicholas Thompson of Donald Insall Associates, they turned it back into one harmonious whole, invoking its glittering Tudor past but adding 21stC comfort.
Aston Rowant & Chilterns Spring Line Villages 