The Chantry of St John the Baptist was on Northgate, the road to Leeds, where Wakefield Grammar School stands today.

[6] The Chapel of St Mary Magdalene was on Westgate where it crossed the Ings Beck on the road to Dewsbury.

[8] In the 14th century the Chantry Chapel of St Mary the Virgin was built on the medieval bridge across the River Calder on the road to Doncaster and the south.

[13] The chapel was transferred to the Church of England in 1842 and the Yorkshire Architectural Society, influenced by the Oxford Movement, persuaded to undertake its restoration.

The society, keen to restore medieval ecclesiastical remains, adopted designs by George Gilbert Scott.

Restoration costing approximately £2,500 (equivalent to £300,000 in 2023),[14] was carried out, resulting in the complete reconstruction of the chapel above pavement level.

The second was having the new façade carved from Caen stone, which crumbled in the polluted urban atmosphere and was completely replaced in 1939 in gritstone by ecclesiastical architect Sir Charles Nicholson.

The original richly carved medieval façade was moved to Kettlethorpe Hall, where it became the frontage to a folly boathouse.

The chapel is at street level and has a lower chamber, the sacristy, accessed by a spiral staircase at the east end.

[18] Renewal to the external stonework cost £30,000 in a project by William Anelay Ltd. Six new carved stone heads were made for the south side of the building.

At the suggestion of architect David Greenwood, the Bishop of Wakefield, the Lady St Oswald of Nostell Priory, the Rt Hon Walter Harrison and Canon Bryan Ellis allowed their features to be sculpted by stonemason John Schofield.