Heritage Open Day: Little Roman Catholic Chapel dating from 1776 originally referred to as a Belvedere. All that remains of the great Hales mansion is the little Roman Catholic chapel on Tenterden Drive, St Stephen’s, Canterbury. Originally referred to in 1776 as a belvedere, the tiny circular building of flint and brick, decorated with animal knucklebones, became ‘la petite Chapelle Rustique’ in the 1850s and then a mortuary chapel by the Jesuits, who purchased the estate, and opened a school in 1880, St Mary’s College, and a seminary in 1901.
The chapel has a statue of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart holding the Christ Child and the wall plaster is painted blue with scattered golden motifs.