Lidwell Chapel

50°34′29″N 3°31′14″W / 50.574781°N 3.520642°W / 50.574781; -3.520642Grid positionSX923758Technical detailsMaterialGraniteDesignationsGrade II Listed Building

Lidwell Chapel, also known as St Mary's Chapel, is a medieval chapel, now in ruins, within the parish of Dawlish in Devon, England. The chapel is a Grade II listed building, and was first listed in 1951.^[1]

The ruins of the chapel are situated in a small wood at the base of Little Haldon, an area of heathland near the towns of Dawlish and Teignmouth. A public footpath leads down from the higher ground to the site. There is an associated holy well^[2] close beside the ruin, which is now obscured. Only the west wall of the building remains standing, although the foundations of the others can be seen.^[1] The ruin is surrounded with a set of iron railings, with a gate at its eastern end, beside which is a wooden sign naming the chapel.

Further down the hill is Lidwell farm, which is likely to have been named after the well with the chapel.

The chapel is associated with a 14th-century monk called Robert de Middlecote, whose deeds are recorded in the Register of John Grandisson, Bishop of Exeter. De Middlecote is recorded as having raped a woman in the chapel, broken into and robbed a house, and robbed numerous travellers on the nearby road between Teignmouth and Exeter on the heath.^[3] A number of other supposed actions of this man are a part of the local legend which surrounds him. One is that he hosted travellers and fed them food laced with a sleep-inducing substance before killing them; he then stole any valuables that they were carrying and threw their corpses into the well.^[4][5]