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Interior of St Michael's Chapel, Rycote
Photograph: E. Smith (1967)
Source: RIBA British Architectural Library Photographs Collection

The fifteenth-century chapel at Rycote, Oxfordshire contains one of the oddest English church interiors. The private chapel of a house burned down in 1745, this is a remnant of an age rocked by religious controversy.

This photograph, taken from near the altar, displays a rich mix of Gothic and Renaissance furnishings. Simple fifteenth-century chancel stalls are nearest to the camera. The later early seventeenth-century fittings easily trump these. The rood screen, its delicately carved columns supporting rounded arches, is extravagantly topped by curving strapwork. Either side are two extraordinary pews. On the right, the square pew blocks the view from the nave into the chancel. On the left, an even more ornate example can just be glimpsed, supposedly built for a visit by Charles I in 1625.

Above all, the musicians’ loft sits uncomfortably on the pew below. Just imagine this filled with musicians, partly hidden, above the king and his lords. What a strange scene this must once have been. Such ostentatious interiors like this, and the worship they facilitated, were completely at odds with Puritan beliefs. In the 1630s this resulted in protests against Charles I and his supporters, ultimately leading to the English Civil War.