Chapel of ease

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A chapel of ease (sometimes 'chapel-of-ease') is a church building other than the main church of a parish which is more accessible to some parishioners than the main church. Such a chapel may exist, for example, when a parish covers several dispersed villages.

The term covers both chapels purposely built as chapels of ease, and buildings which used to be the main parish church building until a larger building was constructed. For example, the small village of Norton, Hertfordshire contains the mediaeval church of St Nicholas, which served it adequately for centuries. But when the large new town of Letchworth was built, partly within the parish, St Nicholas's became too small to serve the increased population. This led to the building of a new main church building for the parish, and St Nicholas's became a chapel of ease.

Chapels of ease are sometimes associated with large manor houses, where they provide a convenient place of worship for the family of the manor.