The annual Mass at the Guild Chapel in Stratford-upon-Avon took place on Wednesday 24 July 2024 at 7pm.  

Mass was celebrated by Parish Priest Fr Alex Austin, OSB who will shortly be leaving the Parish of St Gregory to return to Douai Abbey.

The hymns were well sung and could be heard outside in the town centre, attracting those passing to call in to see what was happening.

The Chapel is on the corner of Church Street and Chapel Lane and is one of Stratford-upon-Avon’s most iconic and important historic buildings. The Guild Chapel dates back to the 13th century, with the nave and tower you see today being rebuilt in the 1490s.

The Chapel is most famous for its superb medieval wall-paintings, especially a vivid scene of the Last Judgement. The wall paintings were whitewashed in the 1560s because they didn't suit the new Protestant form of worship.

John Shakespeare, William's father, oversaw the whitewashing because he was the town's Chamberlain at the time. But the covering of whitewash unintentionally preserved the paintings underneath, and they were revealed when the Chapel was restored in 1804.

In 1996, on the occasion of the 800th Anniversary of the charter granted to the town, permission was given by the Committee of the Trustees of Stratford-upon-Avon Town Council and the co-chaplains of the Chapel for a Catholic Mass to be held there, the first since the Reformation.

As a consequence, the Parish has been able to organise a Mass in the Chapel every year since 1996, apart from when the Chapel and the organ were being refurbished and during the lockdowns resulting from the Covid pandemic.

Fr Alex and the parishioners of St Gregory the Great are most grateful to the Committee of the Trustees of Stratford-upon-Avon Town Trust and the Co-Chaplains for permission to hold their celebrations in the Guild Chapel. Fr Alex thanked all those attended and Doreen Morris who organised the event but could not be there.

St Gregory the Great website

Photo Gallery by Con McHugh