OSGODBY MASS HOUSE

Osgodby Mass House

A document relating to Osgodby chapel records, in legal language, show how the chapel came to be. The building was instigated by Mrs. Mary Tunstal. She had been married to Marmaduke Tunstal of Wycliffe in Yorkshire. Mary Tunstal’s husband died in 1790 so she returned to Claxby, where before her marriage she had been known as Mary Markham, a daughter of the owners of the estate. It was there that the decision to build the chapel at Osgodby near her ancestral home, was taken.

In 1792 a piece of land was bought in the village and donations were sought from the various Catholic landowners nearby. The sum of £2,205 was contributed, and Edward Young, squire of the Normanby estate was asked by Mary Tunstal to carry out the project. The two storey building was completed in 1792 and consisted of a chapel on the upper floor with rooms below it. The house for the priest was attached making the building T shaped. The completed building was constructed in accordance with the stipulations of the Relief Act: “The chapel should not appear ecclesiastical in any way or be on a grand scale, and be without bell or steeple”. That is how it was seen in a report in the Rasen Mail in 1911. “Approaching from the direction of Usselby the stranger may be forgiven if he does not know what to make of the place. The building gives the impression of being either a house or a chapel and one is not able to say clearly what it is.