Chantry chapel

A chapel attached to, or inside, a church and specifically founded in order for masses to be said for the founder’s soul. This was believed to reduce the time spent in purgatory by the deceased and speed them onto to heaven. Chantry chapels are generally medieval in date and Henry VIII dissolved most of them during the dissolution of the monasteries in the mid 16th century.

Chantry chapels in Buckinghamshire include the Old Chantry Chapel in Buckingham as well as many attached to churches, such as that in Chalfont St Peter.