Summary
Barrow-in-Furness cemetery, a public cemetery laid out between 1872 and 1874, opened on 1 June 1873. It includes a suite of buildings comprising a Roman Catholic chapel, a north lodge and south gatehouse and lodges designed by Edward Paley and Hubert Austin.
Reasons for Designation
Barrow Municipal Cemetery, of 1872-1874, to designs by Edward Kemp, and with associated buildings by Paley and Austin, is registered at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Design interest:
* a good example of a municipal cemetery, whose overall effect of landscaping, buildings and tombs is of a good quality, and which embodies reformers' ideas on burial provision;
* Kemp's extensive and creative layout makes good use of the elevated and sloping hillside site overlooking Walney Island and the Debbon Estuary;
* the original design and planting scheme remains largely intact despite interventions to the south-east corner and the loss of the two chapels;
* it retains a suite of well-preserved high-quality buildings by Paley and Austin, including a Roman Catholic chapel, twin entrance lodges and gates, and a north lodge and secondary entrance.
Historic interest
* it has a good range of burial monuments reflecting Barrow’s military, social and economic history.
Designer
* designed by Edward Kemp, the nationally renowned landscape designer, whose notable commissions include an important chain of late-C19 parks in Liverpool, as well as several cemeteries.
Group value
* with the five associated listed buildings designed for the cemetery.
History
Barrow Municipal Cemetery was laid out by Edward Kemp of Liverpool between 1872 and 1874 on land given by the Duke of Devonshire. It opened in 1873, and previous to this, burials from Barrow went to Dalton Cemetery, St Mary’s Churchyard, Walney, or St Michael’s Churchyard, Rampside. The cemetery occupies a roughly rectangular area of about 66 acres. It was designed with a number of sinuous pathways and complementary planting, with a gatehouse and lodges, north lodge and entrance, and Roman Catholic, Non-conformist and Church of England chapels designed by Edward Paley and Hubert Austin.
Edward Kemp (1817-1891) was a landscape gardener who trained under Joseph Paxton at Chatsworth House, Derbyshire and went on to become one of the leading park and garden designers of the C19, working on both public and private commissions. Kemp is known as a nationally renowned landscape designer, whose notable commissions include an important chain of late-C19 parks in Liverpool, and several cemeteries. The Austin & Paley architectural firm was highly regarded, and its output is considered outstanding in both a regional and a national context. This is especially so during the period from about 1870 to 1910 when it is linked with a wealth of fine churches of diverse nature. The firm has been described as one of England's most remarkable architectural practices.
Notable graves within the cemetery include James Young, who died aboard HMS Thetis 1939; Luigi Brucciani who established ice cream cafes in Barrow and elsewhere; the evangelist Elizabeth Longstaff, who helped establish the work of the Salvation Army in the USA; Christopher Wilson, Salvation Army bandmaster and Sir James Ramsden (1822–1896). The latter was pre-eminent among those responsible for the growth of Barrow, and drew up a detailed plan for new streets, and by the 1860s had inspired the creation of the town's major institutions; he also served as Barrow's Mayor between 1867 and 1872. There is also the grave of James Gall, with a grave marker in the form of a tall lighthouse. Gall was a fireman and survivor of the Steam Ship Forfarshire wreck, made famous by Grace Darling and her father, keeper of the Longstone lighthouse, Northumberland. Although Gall escaped the ship wreck aboard a long boat, he was taken to Longstone lighthouse, home of Grace and her father, to be cared for. At James Gall's death in December 1888, there was an evening of song at the Town Hall organised by the local secretary of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution to raise funds for the erection of a memorial to Mr Gall, and thereby invoke the memory of Grace Darling.
The cemetery contains 109 First World War Commonwealth burials, 83 Second World War burials, and five Foreign National war burials comprising four Polish airmen and one Netherlands merchant navy sailor. These graves are mostly located in small groups within the cemetery in line with their religious denomination. There are also the graves of 10 civilian victims of the 'Barrow Blitz' of 1941, when as an industrial centre, Barrow was bombed leading to the death of 80 people, and 330 people were injured. A Cross of Sacrifice to the standard Blomfield design was added to the cemetery in April 1925, as a memorial to the fallen of the First World War.
In 1962 the Non-conformist and Church of England chapels were removed and replaced by a crematorium designed by E N Flitcoff, the borough engineer and surveyor. A small residential development has been constructed in the south-east corner of the site, replacing a former infectious diseases hospital, and a 'woodland' burial site has been added to the western side of the cemetery.
Details
Barrow Municipal Cemetery, a public cemetery laid out between 1872 and 1874, opened on 1 June 1873. It includes a suite of buildings comprising a Roman Catholic chapel, a north lodge and south gatehouse and lodges designed by Edward Paley and Hubert Austin.
LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING: Barrow Cemetery is situated about 1.5km north of Barrow town centre. It occupies an elevated, roughly rectangular site that is orientated north to south, and slopes steeply east to west, and comprises about 66 acres. The site is bounded on the west side by a low stone wall, separating it from housing, on the south side by original dwarf red sandstone walls alternating with square piers, on the east side mostly by a modern brick wall and fences, and on the north side it is defined by a woodland edge. Original decorative cast-iron railings survive intact on the sections of wall flanking the main south entrance gatehouse and the north lodge.
ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES: the main entrance lies in the centre of the south boundary. It comprises a two-storey, triple-arched central block forming a central rib-vaulted carriageway flanked by tunnel-vaulted pedestrian gates; these are in turn flanked by twin gate lodges of similar construction, comprising a single-storey office to the left and a two-storey lodge to the right (listed Grade II). Attached to either lodge are dwarf, curving sandstone walls with square piers and chamfered, flat caps. Original cast-iron railings are set in quadrants to each side and return to line the pavement for a distance on either side of the entrance. The railings have square bars, twin top rails and finials. A standard Cross of Sacrifice to the dead of the First World War is set in a prominent position immediately inside the main entrance. A secondary entrance is situated at the junction of Devonshire and Thorncliffe roads within the eastern boundary (listed Grade II). The gateway has chamfered, square limestone piers with pyramidal tops, and a red sandstone dwarf wall with intermediate piers, comprising a carriage entrance and pedestrian side gate. To the right there are three panels of railings in a curve, and four panels to the left forming the front boundary to a Lodge. The adjacent North Lodge (listed Grade II) also by Paley and Austin, is of coursed limestone with red, ashlar sandstone dressings; it has two storeys and a compact L-shaped plan with a porch in the angle. The round-headed windows are triple, double and paired.
PRINCIPAL BUILDING: The former Roman Catholic chapel of 1872 (listed Grade II) stands in an elevated position at the north-east corner of the cemetery, above the burial ground which falls away gently to the west. It forms a highly visible landmark situated upon the highest part of a ridge, when viewed from the west. It is Romanesque in style, and constructed of silver limestone with red dressings. It has a cruciform plan with an octagonal crossing tower with central lantern on sandstone broaches with a pyramidal cap. The Church of England and Non-conformist chapels formerly situated at the centre of the east side, also upon the ridge, have been replaced by a crematorium of modern, domestic design, built of red brick with a Cumberland slate roof.
OTHER LAND: The boundaries of the site are softened by tree and shrub planting in curvilinear patterns, and small clusters of planting are placed at nodal points along the paths forming compartments; the present array of trees in small clusters and to the edges of the cemetery replicate Kemp's original design but are thought to be reseeded or replanted. The sloping cemetery site has been gently landscaped, to produce an elegant yet practical layout, that maximises the space and topography. The main carriage drive runs uphill from the south entrance and traverses the eastern side of the cemetery and terminates at the Roman Catholic chapel, passing the site of the former Non-conformist and Church of England chapels enroute, now occupied by a crematorium. It originally linked all of the main cemetery buildings. The area between the drive and the east boundary is formed by a wide earthen bank planted with trees and shrubs, that has been revetted in red brick as part of the construction of the crematorium. A short carriage drive extending from the east entrance joins the main carriage drive, and at their junction there is an ornate cast-iron drinking fountain.
The cemetery design is laid out in relation to the former Non-conformist and Church of England chapels, on an east-west axis extending down to the western boundary. It comprises a symmetrical series of curvilinear compartments of varying shapes and sizes defined by metalled paths. This design is divided into a Non-conformist burial ground (north) and a Church of England burial ground (south) matching the locations of the former two chapels. To the north and south of the symmetrical core of the cemetery, there are larger, less formal, asymmetrical curvilinear compartments bounded by paths, now metalled. The Roman Catholic chapel sits at a tangential point of a pair of curvilinear compartments, in the north-east corner of the site, and the Roman Catholic burial ground is lain out around the chapel. In recent years the compartments at the south end of the cemetery have been subdivided into a rectilinear pattern of burial areas, and densely filled with graves, although the basic original design is retained.
Prominent grave markers are located immediately west of the former chapels, and also line the west side of the main carriage drive between the former chapels and the Roman Catholic chapels; they occupy an elevated position on the high ridge overlooking Walney Island and the estuary. The 1886 Ramsden family vault (listed Grade II) is situated within the earthen bank at the east side of the cemetery, facing the former twin chapels. It is of red sandstone ashlar and Gothic Revival in style, with a single doorway in the buttressed front wall with a moulded arch and hoodmould with ram's head keystone. Flanking buttresses have double-chamfered plinths, offsets and arms of Ramsden and the Borough beneath roll-moulded gablets. The grave monument of James Gall (listed Grade II), survivor of the SS Forfarshire, is situated in a central position west of the crematorium. It takes the form of a tall lighthouse upon a rusticated, square plinth and base. Its detailing including a carved entrance reached by a flight of steps, numerous stair windows, and a lantern gallery and lamp.
SERVICE AREA/MASONS YARD: on the south side of the north lodge is a walled yard with building ranges of sandstone along its north and south sides. Historic maps show that the buildings were erected between 1872 and 1890, and are thought to represent stables and a coach house. The buildings are well-built with graduated slate hipped roofs and ridge cresting. The south range forms a stable and tack house with hayloft over, and the single-storey north range, with a full-height double vehicular opening to the east end, was possibly a coach house. Historic maps indicate that a former central projecting range, now indicated by a central blind gable, housed glasshouses.
