Horne's Place Chapel
William Horne's private chapel of 1366, attached to his manor house near Appledore, which rioters targeted during the Peasants' Revolt
Open to visitorsan English Heritage site — check opening times and admission before you go
Substantial ruinsruined, but plenty survives above ground
The Horne family held the manor here from 1276, and William Horne had this small private chapel licensed for worship in 1366, so the household could hear services at home instead of walking to the parish church — a mark of real status at the time. During the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, rebels broke into the manor house and stole a haul of household goods; Horne, a local Justice of the Peace, went on to help put down the rising in Kent. The chapel itself is a tall, two-storey building of Kentish ragstone standing over a vaulted undercroft, a stone cellar originally used for storage, which has its own well and, oddly, two burials found beneath the floor. Its roof timbers, put up in a 16th-century remodelling, and its carved east window are unusually fine for so small a private chapel; the architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner rated the detail here well beyond anything you’d expect in an ordinary parish church. The chapel sits within a private garden, opening to the public just a handful of days a year; the Saxon Shore Way passes within a couple of hundred metres, and the village of Appledore is a short walk south.
