Cemetery keeper's house

Cemetery Keeper’s House, 1874 to designs of G G Hoskins.

MATERIALS: tooled and snecked Horton bank sandstone with Dunhouse stone dressings; Welsh slate roofs, with areas of slates missing to both pitches.

PLAN: a rectangular north-south gabled range, with a shallow, rectangular east-west range attached to the east side.

EXTERIOR: two storeys and three bays with quoins, beneath pitched roofs of fishtail slates with stone verges and tall moulded chimneystacks to the right gable and to the main ridge; the latter is cruciform in plan. There is a moulded eaves cornice and carved stone triangular finials with round-lobed trefoil heads to the various gables. Where visible there are kneelers to the gables and the stone verges have similar stone finials to the gable apexes. Window and door openings are mostly pointed arches set into polychrome surrounds, with mostly square-headed windows to the rear elevation.

The main (south) elevation has a full-height gabled left end bay with a ground floor canted bay window. The central entrance bay has a buttressed entrance porch and the entrance has a hoodmould with floriated stops. There is a two-light first floor window, and a circular window to the apex. The right end bay has a two-light ground floor window and a half-dormer to the first floor, also with a two-light window. The left return has a pair of windows to the ground floor and a pointed-arched yard entrance and is blind above. The gable chimneystack is rectangular and the ridge chimneystack is of cruciform plan, they echo those of the chapels and the chapel spire. The right return has a blocked ground floor pointed-arched entrance to the left of a shallow external chimney. The rear (north) elevation is partially obscured by vegetation and a yard wall: it has a two-light window to the right gabled bay, with a circular window to the apex, a Gothic cross window to the first floor of the central bay and a later, full-height flat-roofed extension to the left bay.

INTERIOR: there is a central entrance hall with the site of the former stair to the rear (mostly removed) and openings to three ground floor rooms. Original four-panel doors have been removed, but their simple moulded architraves remain along with some skirting boards and built-in cupboards; Gothic windows and doors retain original timber frames. The first floor could not be inspected, but viewed from the ground floor; some rectangular architraves are visible, as is a section of the original staircase balustrade with simple moulded newel posts, carved drops and a moulded handrail.

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 05/02/2020