Chapel of St Mary

The history of the chapel is inextricably linked to the history of the castle itself. A manor house built by Lord Ranulph Fitzranulph, Lord of Middleham in about 1250 is believed to have stood on the site of the castle. The castle is believed to have been built between 1426 – 1450 by George Neville. 

In 1534 Katherine Parr, aged 21, became the third wife of John Neville, 3rd Lord Latimer and lived in Snape Castle as stepmother to his two children. During the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536, Lord Latimer was kidnapped by the rebels. Katherine and her step children were held hostage by the rebels at Snape Castle. After Lord Latimer’s death in 1543, she became the sixth wife Henry VIII in 1543. In 1577 the castle passed, through the marriage of Dorothy, one of four daughters of the fourth and last Lord Latimer, to Thomas Cecil, second Lord Burghley and afterwards the 1st Earl of Exeter. By 1587 he had enlarged the towers and transformed Snape Castle into an Elizabethan quadrangular style residence.

In the late 17th a fresco was painted by the Italian artist Antonio Verrio on the ceiling of the chapel. Unfortunately, the condition of the fresco quickly deteriorated and only parts of the original can be seen, what it could have looked like can be seen at Burghley House. In 1798 the castle passed into the hands of the Milbank family of neighbouring Thorp Perrow. The greater part of the castle fell into ruinous condition during the 18th and 19th centuries. The south range was saved and restored in the late 19th century, much as we today.

The Milbanks restored the chapel first in 1837 and again in 1887 but it remained very much a domestic chapel to the Castle. In 1926 The Thorp Perrow estate was broken up and the Chapel was sold on to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for £305 to become a place of public worship. It was then and still is a Chapel of Ease to the parish church of Well with Snape, St Michael’s in Well.