Boston Cemetery Lodge

Boston Cemetery Lodge

Cemetery entrance lodge. Designed by James Piggott Pritchett Junior and built in 1855 with an extension added in the 1980s.

The main part of the building is roughly rectangular in plan, built of brick, stone and slate in the gothic revival style. It is of one storey plus attic and three bays, with a two-centred arched carriageway spanning the central bay that once served as the main entrance into the cemetery. Projecting gables with lean-to extensions are positioned to the rear elevation of each end bay.

The exterior is constructed of red brick laid in Flemish bond, with yellow brick quoins and stone dressings to the carriageway and window openings. The steeply sloping slate-covered cross-gable roof features decorated eavesboards and bargeboards with finials to the gables, repeated on the projecting gables of the rear lean-to extensions. Tall chimney stacks rise on the western slope of the roofs to both end bays, though the stack on the north bay appears to be a later replacement of an earlier stack that matched the one on the south bay.

The front elevation facing east onto Horncastle Road has bay windows on brick plinths with four lancet openings to each end bay, and a double lancet window opening with stone surround in the gable above the carriageway. The rear elevation facing into the cemetery has a double lancet window opening above the carriageway, another on the west wall of the lean-to of the south bay, and another on the south wall of the lean-to of the north bay. Similar double lancet window openings in the gables of the north and south elevations and in the west wall of the lean-to of the north bay have been replaced with rectangular window openings with stone surrounds. The gable to the lean-to of the north bay has a blocked single lancet window, and that to the lean-to of the south bay has a partially bricked-in arched window with a brick cill. All windows have modern double glazing. Door openings on either side of the inside of the arched carriageway and to the side elevations of the lean-to of the south bay have brick arches and framed ledge-and-braced doors with strap hinges. A modern single-storey brick extension with flat roof has been added to the north elevation. Low curved brick flanking walls have been replaced with railings, although the brick end pillars remain. The double gates to each end of the carriageway are later replacements.

Internally, living accommodation was provided on the ground floor of the north bay and in the attic space. The ground floor of the south bay originally housed the cemetery office and storage space but is now used purely for storage. Many original features survive including framed ledged-and-braced and four-panelled doors, fire surrounds and skirting boards.

The Burial Board Act of 1854 authorised the setting up of burial boards outside London. In that year the newly formed Boston Burial Board agreed to create a cemetery on a twelve-acre site to the north of the town. The cemetery, designed by James Piggott Pritchett Junior (1830-1911) of Darlington and laid out by Baker and Son of Sleaford, was opened for funerals in 1855. The original cemetery included the entrance lodge at its eastern end on Horncastle Road; two chapels, one Anglican and the other Nonconformist, located either side of a main avenue of lime trees leading from the entrance lodge; and a mortuary, which though located outside the cemetery to the west, was aligned with the main avenue. The cemetery was extended to the west and south in 1885, at which time the mortuary was dismantled and rebuilt further westwards, now on the extended main avenue and within the boundaries of the extended cemetery. Further extensions followed in 1928, 1940 and 1966. Ownership transferred to Boston Borough Council in 1933. The main entrance is now from Marian Road to the south, and the lodge on Horncastle Road is now used solely as a domestic residence. The Nonconformist Chapel was demolished in 1961 and the mortuary is now used for storage.