Pair of mortuary chapels

Summary

Pair of mortuary chapels built in 1859 to architectural designs by Robert Hutchinson.

Reasons for Designation

The pair of mortuary chapels at Wood Lane Cemetery is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* as an accomplished design by Robert Hutchinson, a successful local architect with a number of listed buildings to his name;
* for the architectural quality of the design, materials and craftsmanship which result in an attractive building in the Gothic Revival style;
* for the rare incorporation of a contagion window in the design of each chapel, both of which survive.

Historic interest:
* the rare contagion windows are an important illustrator of the development of miasma theory in the 1850s, and public health concerns around the safe retention and burial of the deceased;
* for the adaptation of the Anglican chapel as the official mortuary of the town in 1948.

Group value:
* for the important historic and functional group the pair of chapels form with the contemporary cemetery lodge fronting Wood Lane, also by Robert Hutchinson and listed at Grade II.

History

In 1858 Ramsey Burial Board purchased approximately three acres of land off Wood Lane and constructed a cemetery with an Anglican and a Nonconformist chapel as well as a lodge, enclosed by a brick wall and wrought-iron entrance gates. Work was completed in 1859 in the Gothic Revival style to the designs of Robert Hutchinson (1828-1894) an accomplished architect from Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire. During the C19, miasma theory assumed that disease could be spread by breathing ‘bad' or 'poisonous' air. Each of the chapels at Ramsey were built with a contagion window, allowing the bodies of the deceased to be viewed from behind a glass window, with the aim of preventing any potential spread of disease.

During the Second World War (1939-1945) every town was required to designate a building that could be used as a mortuary if needed, and the Anglican (south-west) chapel at Ramsey was designated for that purpose. The Anglican chapel became an official mortuary for the town in 1948 when alterations were carried out by Swearer & Sons, undertakers and builders. Alterations included installation of drainage channels to the floor with latticed metal grilles and a concrete observation platform on the south-east side. The wrought-iron chandeliers in the Anglican chapel and cemetery gates were removed during the Second World War to assist with the war effort. The pair of chapels and the gate lodge were each added to the List in 1983 at Grade II. The cemetery was extended to the north-west in 1910 and further extended to the north-east in 2002.

Robert Hutchinson was trained in London and articled to Charles James Richardson from 1846 and afterwards as an Improver in the office of Sydney Smirke. His independent practice in Huntingdon commenced in 1852, and in 1855 he designed a pair of chapels and a cemetery lodge for Huntingdon Cemetery (each listed at Grade II). He was appointed County Surveyor for Huntingdon in 1866 and Huntingdon Borough Surveyor in 1875, followed by Diocesan Surveyor for Ely from 1887. Other listed works by Hutchinson include: the Village Hall in Hilton (1856, Grade II); a pair of chapels and a gate lodge at Whittlesey Cemetery (around 1860, each Grade II); and the Corn Exchange in St Ives (1864, Grade II). He was also responsible for restoration work to All Saints Church, Hartford, Huntingdon in 1861 (Grade II*) and rebuilding the front of the George Hotel in Huntingdon in 1865 (Grade II*).

Details

Pair of mortuary chapels built in 1859 to architectural designs by Robert Hutchinson.

MATERIALS: The roof is of shaped clay tiles and the walls are constructed of gault brick with stone dressings.

PLAN: The building is T-shaped on plan comprising a rectangular-plan Anglican chapel aligned north-east to south-west, and a perpendicular Nonconformist chapel to the north-east aligned south-east to north-west; the two chapels are connected by a central archway aligned south-east to north-west.

EXTERIOR: The pair of single-storey chapels are linked by a gabled archway with a tall, octagonal, ashlar stone belfry and spire over. The spire features gabled lancet windows in pointed surrounds and the belfry has trefoil cusped openings. The Anglican chapel is gabled to the south-west and has a shallow gabled projection to each of its north-west and south-east elevations; the Nonconformist chapel is gabled to the north-west and south-east and has a shallow gabled projection to its north-east elevation. The pitched roofs of the two chapels are covered with shaped clay tiles laid in three horizontal polychromatic bands and surmounted by fleur-de-lis ridge tiles. The walls are of gault brick with carved stone dressings and a dentilled eaves course. The gables of the chapels and archway have carved stone parapets and finials; the corners of the gables are braced by kneelers and buttresses with carved stone dressings.

The gabled projection on the south-east side of the Anglican chapel features a pointed-arch window surround with a hood mould, and contains bipartite stone tracery, margined leaded lights and a quatrefoil overlight; the projection is flanked by triangular window surrounds containing trefoil leaded lights. The south-west gable also has a pointed-arch window surround with a hood mould, and contains tripartite stone tracery, margined leaded lights and hexafoil overlight. The north-west gabled projection has a pointed-arch door surround containing a ledged timber door with decorative wrought-iron strapwork; the central section of the door folds down vertically over the bottom section. As on the south-east elevation, the gabled projection is flanked by triangular window surrounds containing trefoil leaded lights.

The north-west and south-east gables of the Nonconformist chapel each have a pointed arch window surround with hood mould, and contain tripartite stone tracery, margined leaded lights and a multi-foiled overlight. Similar to the Anglican chapel, the gabled projection on the north-east side of the Nonconformist chapel features a pointed-arch door surround and vertically-folding ledged timber door, flanked by triangular window surrounds with trefoil leaded lights.

INTERIOR: The Anglican chapel has a four truss, wooden hammerbeam roof structure with punctured trefoil ornament and carved floral bosses to the hammerbeams, which rest on carved stone corbels. Two wrought-iron chandeliers, which are replicas of the originals, are suspended from the ceiling with electric lights. The walls are of rendered brick with wood panelling to dado height. The floors, margined with polychromatic encaustic tiles, are laid to a geometric pattern, with three eight-pointed stars down the centre of the chapel. Drainage channels at the south-west end of the chapel, installed in 1948, have latticed metal grilles. The south-east side of the chapel has a cast-concrete former observation platform installed in 1948. The triangular window openings on the south-east and north-west walls have deep chamfered reveals. The gabled projections on the south-east and north-west walls are each framed by a pointed arch with chamfered reveals, that on the north-west wall containing a 'contagion' or 'viewing' window. The contagion window has large panes of plate glass in a wooden Y-tracery surround featuring three plain engaged columns. Under the contagion window the wooden panelling has quatrefoil decoration, and behind the window stands a coffin platform constructed of wooden slats, on which the coffin was displayed. The north-east wall features a central double, ledged wooden door with decorative wrought-iron door furniture.

The Nonconformist chapel features an identical hammerbeam roof, tiled floor, contagion window and ledged double door with decorative wrought-iron door furniture. At the south-east end of the chapel, a wooden dais runs around the north-east and south-east sides. An enclosed WC was constructed in the north-west corner of the chapel in the mid- to late C20.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

54479

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, Nikolaus, O'Brien, Charles, The Buildings of England: Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire and Peterborough, (2014), 664
British Architectural Library, RIBA, Directory of British Architects 1834-1914, (2001), 986

Websites
Ramsey Mortuary Chapels Heritage and Archive Centre, ‘A Brief History’, accessed 29 January 2024 from https://www.ramseymortuarychapels.org.uk/
Huntingdon Crematorium, ‘Robert Hutchinson’, accessed 29 January 2024 from https://huntingdoncrematorium.co.uk/heritage-page/notable-people-buried-in-priory-road-cemetery/robert-hutchinson/]
Huntingdon Cambridgeshire Community Archive Network, ‘The work of Robert Hutchinson, 1828-1894, architect of Huntingdon. Source David Hufford’, accessed 29 January 2024 from https://huntingdon.ccan.co.uk/content/catalogue_item/the-work-of-robert-hutchinson-1828-1894-architect-of-huntingdon-source-david-hufford
Science Museum, ‘Cholera in Victorian London. Miasmas Versus Contagions’, accessed 29 January 2024 from https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/medicine/cholera-victorian-london#:~:text=In%20miasma%20theory%2C%20it%20was,characterised%20by%20its%20foul%20smell

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