PAR - Phyllis Ryder (309)

The Little Chapel is reputed to be the smallest church in the world (possibly only accommodating two people at once), and according to the Guernsey Hotel and Tourism Association Web site:

This lies at the foot of the present day Blanchelande Girls College (formerly Les Vauxbelets College). It was built by Brother Deodat Antoine a de la Salle Monk of a teaching order known as the brothers of the Christian Schools who lived at Les Vauxbelets and who came to Guernsey in 1913. After 3 attempts the brother had nearly finished the Chapel when World War II broke out. The other monks at Les Vauxbelets eventually completed it after the war. In 1978, a century after his birth, a fund was launched to underpin and restore the chapel. The healing waters of Lourdes and the miracle experienced there by Bernadette Soubirous, inspired Brother Deodat Antoine to make the construction of a replica of the Our Lady of Lourdes shrine his life's work. He never actually saw it completed because he returned to France when war broke out and died in 1951. The chapel itself is built from clinkers, a by-product of the furnaces used to heat island's greenhouses. It is decorated with ormer shells and thousands of pieces of china and glass, some from Wedgwood itself. People from all over the island, and abroad, sent broken china and pottery to Les Vauxbelets to be incorporated into the Chapel.