Roman Catholic Chapel at Earlham Cemetery

Summary

A small cemetery chapel, built in 1874 to the designs of the Norwich architect John Bond Pearce as part of an extension to Earlham cemetery in Norwich to serve the Roman Catholic community.

Reasons for Designation

The Roman Catholic Chapel at Earlham Cemetery in Norwich, erected in 1874-5, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural Interest: the chapel is a carefully-detailed and well-preserved example of C19 cemetery architecture, by noted local architect J.B. Pearce in the Gothic style strongly favoured by architects such as A.W.Pugin and his followers;
* Historic interest: the chapel represents the ongoing development of an early Burial Board cemetery with the provision of facilities for Roman Catholic burials;
* Landscape interest: the chapel forms an important and prominent addition to a designed cemetery landscape, and is carefully sited in relation to important vistas within what is now a Grade II Registered Historic Garden.

History

The Roman Catholic Chapel at Earlham in Norwich is located in a 15 acre section of the cemetery purchased in 1874 as an extension to the earlier cemetery laid out by Norwich Town Council in 1856, to the designs of E.E.Benest, the City Surveyor. The original cemetery was established in a circa 30 acre site, and included lodges, offices and twin chapels, for Church of England and Non-Conformist burials, together with a separate chapel and burial ground for Jews. The 15 acre extension was laid out to the south of the existing cemetery, and a flint and tile chapel in the Gothic style was constructed to the designs of the Norwich architect John Bond Pearce (1843-1904) who also designed the Agricultural Hall in Norwich and Great Yarmouth Town Hall. The cemetery expanded further until 1892, when a large isolation hospital was built on its western boundary. Additional land continued to be purchased for cemetery use until after the Second World War, and in1963-4 the original twin chapels were replaced by a crematorium building designed by the City architect David Percival, leaving the Catholic and Jewish chapels as the only C19 chapel facilities to survive. The Chapel remains in the ownership of Norwich City Council (2015).

Details

A cemetery chapel in the Gothic style, built in 1874-5 as an addition to the Earlham Cemetery in Norwich to provide facilities for Roman Catholic burials. The chapel was built to the designs of the architect John Bond Pearce (1843-1904).

MATERIALS: the chapel is built of split flint with ashlar dressings beneath a steeply-pitched roof with a Welsh slate roof covering, coped gables and cross finials.

PLAN: the building is of rectangular, three-bay, two-cell form, with a nave and apsidal sanctuary.

EXTERIOR: the chapel is orientated east-west. The entrance is in the west gable, and is set within a shallow gabled and buttressed porch. The doorway has a moulded, pointed-arched surround, the arch springing from imposts supported by slender black marble shafts with foliated capitals. The porch has a coped gable with a cross finial. Above the porch is a ten-light wheel window within a heavily-moulded surround, and above again, in the gable apex, a quatrefoil plaque bearing the date 'A D 1875'. The corners of the building have low clasping buttresses, and the side walls incorporate two paired, pointed-arched windows with trefoil and quatrefoil tracery to the arch heads set below hood moulds with foliated stops. The window openings are linked by a continuous string course interrupted by a low gabled buttress at the wall mid-point. At the south-east corner is a tall, slender octagonal spire with miniature lucarnes and paired lancets to the bell stage. The chapel has a small polygonal apse lit by tall slender lancets.

INTERIOR: the roof structure is supported by lightweight double hammer beam trusses and a single tier of purlins. The trusses at either end of the roof are set against the sanctuary arch wall and the west gable, and are supported on wall corbels with foliage decoration. The window reveals of the side wall windows are set beneath single arches, each with a hood mould with foliated stops. The moulded arches rise from slender black marble shafts. The sanctuary has a pierced wooden cornice with quatrefoil decoration.

FIXTURES AND FITTINGS:the building is now used for storage purposes, but retains a small table altar in the sanctuary, and several, small, wall monuments to clergy associated with the chapel.

End of official list entry

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