West Mortuary Chapel In Blackhill Cemetery

The West Mortuary Chapel in Blackhill Cemetery is a mortuary chapel, now used as a store-room by the Parks and Cemeteries Department. It was built in 1876 and features coursed squared sandstone with ashlar dressings, a plinth, and quoins, topped with a Welsh slate roof and stone gable copings. The chapel has a T-plan and is designed in the Decorated style, aligned north-south, with a nave and a ritual north transept, along with a porch situated at the angle between them.

The front gable showcases diagonally-boarded double doors set within a cusped, two-centred arch that has a shafted, moulded surround. A continuous dripmould runs with the string on the flanking coped buttresses. Above the doors, a large wheel window features central star-of-David tracery, and there is a small lancet window at the peak of the gable. The porch includes an open arch and a blind trefoil, while a bell turret to the left of the main gable has shouldered cusped lights beneath a brattished parapet.

The steeply-pitched stone coping below the belfry is adorned with a cusped gabled arcade and an octagonal spire that has patterned bands and a wrought-iron finial. The right side of the chapel displays four spherical-triangular lights with varied tracery in panels, defined by buttresses, and a large four-light traceried window at the rear. The left transept features a two-light gable window with cusped plate tracery. The steeply-pitched roofs are topped with elaborate stone cross finials, although one is missing, and include gabled kneelers.