Summary
Burial Board Cemetery of 1857.
Reasons for Designation
Utley Cemetery is registered at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Landscape: athough the architect is unknown, the cemetery was clearly designed to make good use of its sloping site and views across the valley to the north. This landscape is well preserved and little altered, including some of the planting, the only significant loss being the clearance of one of the two mortuary chapels;
* Date: a good, early example of a Burial Board Cemetery, demonstrating how these imitated private cemeteries by providing a landscaped setting for burials, the cemetery also providing public space for quiet recreation via meandering walks;
* Monuments: for retaining a wide range of visually striking monuments including the grade II listed Butterfield Mausoleum;
* Structures: the surviving mortuary chapel, the two lodges, boundary walls and gateways are all little altered and add to the special interest of the cemetery as a whole.
History
Utley Cemetery was opened in 1857 under the direction of the Keighley Burial Board under the provisions of the Burials Act earlier in the 1850s. It was opened on 13 April 1857 after being consecrated by the Bishop of Ripon. The architect for the cemetery and the cemetery buildings is unknown. The first addition 1:2500 Ordnance Survey map is thought to show the original layout of the cemetery, including an indication of the original planting with trees shown throughout the area but with concentrations along the southern, eastern and western boundaries. A new cemetery area (not included in this assessment) was opened in 1900 to the north of the original cemetery, on the north side of the railway line. One of the two original mortuary chapels (the north western, Church of England chapel) was demolished in 1981, the Non-Conformist chapel survives but is disused.
Details
LOCATION, SETTING, LANDFORM, BOUNDARIES, AND AREA: Utley Cemetery is sited on a north east facing hillside, extending down hill from the Skipton Road (the main road between Keighley and Utley) to the railway. Although surrounded by suburban houses on three sides, the cemetery has an open aspect to the countryside of the River Aire flood plain with Rombalds Moor beyond to the north east. The boundaries are walled and follow Skipton Road on the south-west side, Cemetery Lane on the south-east and north-east side and the gardens of Birchwood Drive to the north-west. The cemetery, excluding the C20 extensions to the north, covers an area of just over 3.7ha.
ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES: there are two main entrances into the cemetery: the grandest is a pedestrian entrance to the south, at the junction of Skipton Road and Cemetery Lane. This is a large, stone arched gateway, Gothic Revival in style, with a two-centred arch with a carved date of 1856 surmounted by a foliated cross, the entrance closed with iron gates. Immediately inside this gateway is the former sexton's house, a simply detailed but little altered two storey gabled building with a large central chimney stack. The second principal entrance is the carriage entrance off Skipton Road. This is a simple gateway set slightly back from the road with iron gates hung from Gothic, spire topped gate piers. The flanking wing walls have decorative iron railings. Just inside the entrance to the west is the former Registrar's house, now used as offices. This is a T plan house which is also simply detailed, but with slightly more Gothic elaboration than displayed with the sexton's house.
On the north west side of the cemetery there is a modern access via a footbridge over the railway line. This connects to the later extensions to the cemetery created in the C20.
PRINCIPAL BUILDING: the cemetery, as originally designed, had a matching pair of mortuary chapels facing each other across the line of the carriage entrance drive. Only the Non-Conformist chapel survives. This is small, cruciform in plan with steeply pitched roofs and three light windows with either geometric tracery (to the transepts) or curvilinear tracery (to the east window).
CEMETERY: the cemetery is elongated to the north west and south east. It is divided into two across its shorter axis by a straight path continuing the line of the entrance drive north eastwards, with consecrated ground for Church of England burials to the north west and Non-Conformist burials to the south east. Two areas at the bottom of the hillside on the Non-Conformist side are reserved for Roman Catholic burials. The mortuary chapels were built on a levelled terrace to the centre of the cemetery, either side of this axial route at the end of the short carriage drive. The very highest status burial plots are found along the north eastern edge of this terrace, including the Butterfield family mausoleum which is grade II listed with its small chapel sited on the upper terrace, with a burial vault below accessed from the middle terrace. The middle terrace is accessed from the upper terrace via a flight of steps flanked by yew trees. This middle terrace has an elliptical path and is tightly filled with high status burials marked by a wide range of elaborate monuments including obelisks, urns, and Celtic crosses amongst more traditional head stones. The axial path continues down via a second flight of steps to the lower part of the cemetery with the Roman Catholic burial ground to the south east and lower status Church of England burials to the north west, both areas having fewer, generally simpler memorials. Access to the rest of the cemetery is provided by a network of broad, curving paths leading off the central axis, allowing for a variety of circular walks which also link through to the pedestrian entrance in the south eastern corner of the cemetery. There are also several narrower, more naturalistic paths which curve through areas of planting, forming short cuts between the broader, more formal paths. Beyond the densely occupied middle terrace, memorials are scattered throughout the cemetery, with higher concentrations tending to be found in the upper, southern parts of the area. The cemetery as a whole retains a number of mature trees including copper beech, cedar, Corsican pine, willow, holly and yew, at least a proportion of which is thought to derive from the original planting scheme.
This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 28 October 2024 to reformat the text to current standards.
