Reflections on a Simple Past | 01. The Little Chapel

A small island, a visionary individual, devotion, broken china, and the beautiful monument which has stood the test of time.

In the first of a new series, I look back at some of the people, places and things which have so richly influenced and inspired my love of all things simple.

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All our photos of Guernsey seem to be over-exposed. I’ve included them here because, in may respects, they are very much of their time.

In February 1994, we took Granny with us for a long weekend in Guernsey. It was my first (only, and last?) time flying, and my first time leaving the mainland (except the Isle of Wight). We flew on a tiny (wind-up?) Air UK plane from Southampton Airport, staying at the Duke of Normandy Hotel near St Peter Port. The Channel Islands have had a chequered past, and very much have an identity of their own, yet it is this which somehow makes them so special and alluring. They feel almost forgotten in comparison to the hustle and bustle of the mainland.

Our plane, having landed in Guernsey.

While we were staying in Guernsey, we visited the Little Chapel. Located within the almost-tropical Les Vauxbelets valley, it was built in 1914 by Brother Déodat, his original intention that it would be a recreation of the basilica and grotto at Lourdes. Like the island itself, the Little Chapel has had a chequered past. The version we see today is actually the third incarnation, completed around 1923. The previous two were found to be simply too small, yet the third measures just 16x9’.

The Little Chapel is, in many ways, the epitome of simplicity. ‘Little’ is almost too strong a word, as it is quite simply, tiny. At best, you might fit eight people inside. The second incarnation of the chapel turned out too be too small when the visiting Bishop of Portsmouth couldn’t fit through the door. Brother Déodat set about demolishing it the same night.

Granny in the doorway to the Little Chapel.

But what makes the Little Chapel special when there are so many other small chapels dotted all over the British Isles?

The entirety of the chapel is covered in broken china, seashells and pebbles. This is no ordinary, stone chapel. Much of these was found locally, with Brother Déodat painstakingly collecting and continuously adding to the chapel. An article in the Daily Mirror brought fame to the chapel, with many of the islanders donating their own pieces. Something so tiny is the result of a far greater, community effort. We might liken the exterior of the Little Chapel to kintsugi, the ancient Japanese art of repairing broken pottery, that somehow, something lastingly beautiful, can be created from the tiny fragments of the broken and discarded.

Alas, Brother Déodat never lived to see the finished chapel exterior. After his death in 1939, it was entrusted to Brother Cephas, who continued to add to the exterior until his retirement in 1965. The Little Chapel is now owned by a charitable trust.

It I were to choose one word to describe the Little Chapel, it would be touching. Not only is it incredibly beautiful, but it came into being as a result of the lasting devotion of a few visionary individuals, with the help of the community in which they served.

In many respects, the intricacy of its exterior belies it’s simplicity as a non-denominational House of God, a peaceful, reflective space, set in its own Eden-like valley which reminded Brother Déodat so deeply of Lourdes, the place in the foothills of the French Pyrennees where the Virgin Mary appeared to the young shepherdess Bernadette as she gathered firewood by a grotto on the banks of the River Gave.

In a fractured world, we need more deeply than ever, the visionary principles of individuals willing to lead their communities in positive and lasting change. The broken and fractured can be made new.

You can read more about the Little Chapel and see some much better photos on its own website here.

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