Former Chapel And Crematorium At Hedon Road Cemetery

The former chapel and crematorium at Hedon Road Cemetery is a disused building dating from 1899, almost certainly designed by Joseph H. Hirst. It was restored in the mid-20th century and has been disused since around 1963. The structure is made of red brick with ashlar dressings and slate roofs, designed in the Perpendicular Gothic style.

The building features a plinth, string courses, a sill band, and coped gables with crosses. It has a T-shaped plan with a west porch and a central tower on the south side. The east end has angle buttresses and a four-light lancet window with bar tracery, a moulded surround, and a hoodmould. To the right of this window is a door with a label mould, and above it is a single lancet window with a hoodmould. The north side has two squat triple lancets with moulded heads and hoodmoulds.

The western cross wing has a four-light lancet in each gable, featuring bar tracery and a stepped sill band, with a single lancet opening above. The west corners of this wing have angle buttresses. On the west side, there is a flat-roofed single-storey projection with a central gabled porch that has a pointed-arched doorway and a hoodmould, flanked by two flat-headed windows.

The square tower to the south serves as both a bell tower and a chimney, consisting of four stages. The lower stages have a string course and flush stone bands, with deep moulded and modillion eaves supporting a steeply pitched pyramidal roof with a central square flue. The lower stage includes single-storey toilets with flat-headed windows on either side. The second stage has a single lancet window with a hoodmould on three sides, while the third stage features similar lancets on each side. Above this is a moulded cornice leading to the bell stage, which has corner shafts and two single lancet louvred openings on each side, all linked by hoodmoulds.

The crematorium, originally coke-fired, is reputed to be the first municipal crematorium to open in England.