There ! I've named it !

 

The chapel owes its location to the Sheppard family. Joseph Sheppard, who was born in Padstow in 1794 , purchased Cowley House (now known as Cowley Place) in 1848. A former woollen draper he lived there with his first wife Maria, who died in 1856, and his second wife Elizabeth whom he married in 1857. Formerly residents of Cowley had been obliged to walk to Brampford Speke to attend services at the parish church. However by the early 1860s, Sheppard was allowing services to be held in Cowley House.

 

When Sheppard died on 21 June 1865 his daughters decided to give a parcel of land for the erection of a permanent chapel. The land selected was on the corner of the Crediton Road and St Andrew's Road and was specifically excluded from the sale of the remaining estate, much of which was advertised on 21 November 1866.

 

William Gibbs, a well-known philanthropist whose parents had lived in the parish, offered to fund the building of the Chapel on the condition that voluntary subscriptions produced an endowment fund of £2,000 to enable a curate to be employed. Unfortunately raising this fund proved problematic.

 

Kindersley's appeal appears to have raised just £100 of the £300 required. Fortunately William Gibbs stepped in and paid the remaining £200. The architect instructed was Major Rohde Hawkins, who appears at the same time to have been overseeing the construction of the much larger St. Michael's Church at Mount Dinham in Exeter - also funded by William Gibbs.

 

Building work continued apace. By May 1868 the chapel was complete. On Monday 4 May 1868 St Antony's was consecrated by Bishop Walter Trower. The dedication is to St Antony of Egypt.

Inside St Antony's the contributions of William Gibbs and the daughters of Joseph Sheppard are commemorated by a plaque. The Revd. R C Kindersley, died on 16 July 1871 at the early age of 40. Stained glass windows were installed in his memory both at Brampford Speke and at Cowley.

 

And now, after 143 years after it was first consecrated as a chapel of ease, the doors have been locked and the building is now for sale...

 

All above info taken from

www.peterjtyldesley.com

 

And here is a link to an amazing site - that talks mainly about the buildings heating system !

www.hevac-heritage.org/items_of_interest/heating