St Catherine's Chapel, Lydiate

St Catherine’s Chapel stands in Lydiate, Merseyside, beside the A5147 road and next to the Scotch Piper Inn. It is a ruined sandstone chapel built in the late 15th or early 16th century by the Ireland family for private worship. The building is Grade II* listed and a Scheduled Monument, though it has never been an abbey. Only the outer walls remain after centuries of neglect following the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The chapel’s grounds now host local events, including annual Shakespeare performances. The chapel’s history is tied to the Ireland family, who began its construction under Laurence Ireland and possibly finished it under his son John. Four alabaster tablets from 1420–1460, depicting Saint Catherine, may once have formed part of the altar. Visitors in the 18th and 19th centuries described the chapel as overgrown with ivy and missing its roof. A small cemetery on the site contains graves dating from 1701, including those of Jesuit priests buried secretly. Today the chapel’s perpendicular-style walls and buttresses still stand, with battlements on the north and south sides. The square tower rises three storeys, and the east window once held stained glass, though its colours are lost. The southern entrance once had a porch, now collapsed, and the northern wall has no windows. The grounds include a quiet cemetery where visitors can walk among the graves while imagining the chapel’s past grandeur.