Jewish Mortuary Chapel at Earlham Cemetery

Summary

A small mortuary chapel for members of the Jewish community built as an original element of the Burial Board cemetery at Earlham in Norwich which opened in 1856.

Reasons for Designation

The Jewish Mortuary Chapel at Earlham Cemetery in Norwich, designed by Edward Everett Benest and erected circa 1856, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Rarity: the chapel is a nationally- rare example of a chapel built as part of an early Burial Board cemetery plan for members of the Jewish community;
* Historic interest: the chapel is testimony to the presence of an established Jewish community in Norwich of sufficient numbers to justify the provision of dedicated facilities for Jewish burials;
* Landscape interest: the chapel within its associated burial ground forms a distinctive and carefully maintained original component of a designed cemetery landscape, within what is now a Grade II Registered Historic Garden.

History

The Jewish Mortuary Chapel is located in Earlham cemetery in Norwich, opened in 1856, when applications for burial plots were first received. The 1854 Burial Board Act had authorised the setting up of Burial Boards outside of London, and Norwich Town Council established a board in the same year. The board purchased circa 30 acres of land in the following year and the City Surveyor, Edward Everett Benest, drew up plans for the site to include lodges, offices and twin chapels for Church of England and Non-Conformist burials, together with a separate chapel and burial ground for people of the Jewish faith. In 1874, land for a 15 acre extension to the cemetery was purchased and a flint and tile, Roman Catholic chapel in the Gothic style was constructed. 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 in 1963-4 the original twin chapels were replaced by a crematorium building designed by the Norwich City architect David Percival, leaving the Jewish and Catholic chapels as the only C19 chapel facilities to survive. The cemetery remains in the ownership of Norwich City Council (2015).

Details

A small mortuary chapel completed circa 1856 for members of the Jewish community, sited in the north-west corner of Earlham cemetery in Norwich, designed by Edward Everett Benest, Surveyor to the City of Norwich.

MATERIALS: red brick with ashlar stone and grey brick detailing, coped gables and a Welsh slate roof covering.

EXTERIOR: the chapel is a small, two-bay building aligned east-west, rising from a deep brick plinth. The bays are delineated by low buttresses, between which are red brick wall panels. At mid-wall level is a moulded string course carried around all sides of the building. The entrance doorway is set within the west gable, beneath a shouldered stone lintel. The string course is carried upwards in two steps to form a hood mould above the door head. There is a plain, vertically-planked door with cover strips. Above the doorway is a shallow, pointed-arched, three-light window opening with cusped heads to the staggered lights. At the east end is a similarly-detailed tall, five-light window. The window surrounds are formed of alternating clusters of grey and red bricks, whilst the corners and buttresses have grey bricks in imitation of quoining.

INTERIOR: the interior of the chapel is plainly detailed, with plain clay floor tiles, plastered and painted walls, exposed rafters and a single slender arch-braced collar truss supporting single purlins. There are no fixed furnishings.

SETTING: the chapel is at the edge of a small section of the cemetery reserved for members of the Jewish community, in which there are headstones of distinctive design. The headstone in a Jewish cemetery is known as a Matzeivah, and bears an inscription in Hebrew.

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 26/01/2017.

Sources

Books and journals
Kadish, S, Jewish Heritage in England, an Architectural Guide, (2006), 110-1
Kadish, Sharman, Jewish Heritage in Britain and Ireland: An Architectural Guide, (2015), 134-5

Websites
Norwich City (Earlham Road) Cemetery, accessed 15/Mar/2016 from https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1001560

End of official list entry

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