The chapels discussed thus far had specific congregations or users and were, at the very least, supposed to be officially sanctioned. In contrast, my next two chapters will deal with chapels that had a wide range of visitors and were not necessarily licensed. These structures could be described as ‘public’ because their visitors were not circumscribed by membership of a particular community or family. However, as a result of them not having licences, such sites might not have been consecrated or had burial or baptismal rights.

This chapter specifically examines the evidence for what we have termed ‘locational chapels’ – buildings that were deliberately sited in a locality because of its significance. Locational chapels marked something, whether it be a topographic feature such as a hilltop, a routeway, an event such as a battle, or a place of danger such as a harbour, pass, ferry crossing or bridge. They were intended to be places of prayer and devotion, and were occasionally permitted limited services by bishops. As with the other types of chapel, these buildings posed a potential threat to the rights of the parish church, and bishops would have been keen to ensure that infringements were few and far between.

Many questions remain unanswered regarding locational chapels. Orme categorised chapels by location and argued that such chapels were placed on hills, caves and islands in order to Christianise the landscape. The only locational chapels that Pounds considered were wayside and bridge chapels. He seems to have been perplexed by wayside chapels, describing their purpose as obscure, though he did find chapels at fords such as Wadebridge on the river Camel explicable because ‘probably they served for the spiritual comfort of travellers about to make the hazardous crossing of an unpredictable tidal river’. J.H. Adams recognised the practical and devotional aspects of ford chapels; he interpreted lighthouse chapels as serving a similar purpose of guiding travellers.

To address this shortfall in knowledge, this chapter will ask the following questions: what are the characteristic topographic settings of these chapels in our study areas and what do these locales tell us about the chapels’ purposes?