Cemetery of St Cuthbert's College, Ushaw

The cemetery of St Cuthbert’s College, Ushaw, was designed in 1852 and is attributed to Joseph Hansom, with a later extension. It is a group value asset, demonstrating architectural and historic significance. The cemetery is rectangular, with a gently curved west boundary, and features opposed gateways situated roughly midway along the north and south sides. The L-shaped cloister occupies the east end and part of the north side, with its entrance on the central east-west axis running through the cemetery.

The primary building material is Gothic coursed squared sandstone, with sandstone copings to the boundary wall; cast iron railings are present to the west. The cloister's structure is a timber colonnade covered by a slate roof. Memorials within the cemetery are largely sandstone, but also include polished granite and marble, along with wrought and cast iron elements.

The cloister is nine bays long along its east elevation and eight bays on its north side. The bays are defined by simple braced timber uprights rising from a plain wall matching the boundary to the south. A gabletted entrance is located in the central bay of the east elevation. The interior walls are lined with marble and brass memorial plaques, both on the walls and underneath the colonnade. At the south end of the cloister stands a Crucifixion, alongside a marble statue of the Sacred Heart by A. B. Wall situated at the west end. The floor is brick, incorporating memorial slabs.

The cemetery entrances are fitted with low Gothic timber gates, with a timber lychgate above the south entrance. Within the cemetery are numerous substantial 19th-century Gothic grave markers, many with tomb covers. Included is the grave monument of Henry Marsland, designed by Edward Welby Pugin in 1861. The cemetery contains several tombs of high quality, almost entirely in the Gothic style. Particularly noteworthy are the Chadwick Tomb and Memorial Cross.

The Memorial Cross, dating to approximately 1870, was designed by Canon Scruton to commemorate Rev. Thomas Crowe. It features a sandstone ashlar base with a wrought iron cross. The chamfered plinth stands upon three steps and supports a high square pedestal with chamfers and broach stops; bronze plaques on the west and east faces bear Latin inscriptions. The cross itself is elaborately decorated with floral motifs.

Bishop Chadwick’s Tomb, created in 1884 by Archibald Dunn of Dunn and Hansom, is a table tomb consisting of an ashlar grave slab adorned with a raised decoration of a Bishop’s crosier, chalice, and Host, topped with a cross-coped canopy with fishscale decoration and supported by four pink granite shafts. The design is a free copy, with some reconstruction of damaged sections, of Godfrey de Bouillon's tomb at Jerusalem.