Turnchapel

The earliest recorded religious house in this area was a small chapel at the head of Hooe lake dedicated to St Anne. Believed to have been built around 1100 this earlier building no longer stands but the name was almost preserved in the naming of the new church in Hooe in 1853, indeed the early plans referred to it as St Anne's and the original vicarage was St Anne's House.

However it was not to be and by what appears to have been very much a last minute decision the church was dedicated to St John the Evangelist and not the Mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary - St Anne. There appears to be little doubt though that the name of the little old chapel has survived in another form as what originally was known as St Anne's Chapel later became Tan Chapel (1770) and then by dint of dialectical transformation - Turn Chapel ... and finally Turnchapel.

EH 21 August 1993