Anglican And Nonconformist Mortuary Chapels At Huntingdon Cemetery

Anglican and Nonconformist Mortuary Chapels at Huntingdon Cemetery

These cemetery chapels were built around 1855 to designs by Robert Hutchinson, architect to the Huntingdon Burial Board. They represent an early example of the public cemetery structures enabled by the 1852 Burial Acts, which allowed publicly-funded Burial Boards to construct cemeteries.

The building is constructed in thinly coursed Carstone slips with ashlar dressings, coped gables, moulded kneelers and a plain tile roof, all executed in the Early English style. It follows a T-shaped plan that incorporates two separate chapel areas—one for Anglican services and one for Nonconformist services.

The principal west elevation contains the entrances to both chapels. The Anglican chapel entrance sits within a steep gable at the west end, featuring a moulded pointed-arched opening with plank double doors hung from elaborate strap hinges. To the right is a single lancet window, and above the doorway a trefoil light. A low sloping buttress at the base marks a 3-stage corner tower, the upper stage of which is an octagonal lead-covered spire. The middle stage contains a tall louvred lancet, and trefoil decoration adorns the base of the spire on each facet. The north elevation of the Anglican chapel has two angled buttresses to the tower base and two cusped single-light windows within ashlar surrounds. The east end gable displays a tall triple-lancet window with a trefoil light to the apex.

The Nonconformist chapel entrance lies to the east of the Anglican chapel, set within a gabled porch with a steeply pitched roof. This porch is flanked by cusped single-light windows within ashlar surrounds. The south gable has buttresses at each corner and a 2-light window with lancets positioned below a circular light, with a trefoil light to the gable apex.

Internally, the Anglican chapel remains in use for funeral services and retains original fittings including benches and plain panelled stalls. The roof is underboarded and supported on arch-braced roof trusses with trefoils piercing the arch spandrels.

The chapels were completed in 1855 together with the associated entrance lodge (Porters Lodge), with which they form the original ensemble of buildings designed for the cemetery landscape. The building has been little altered internally and externally, and continues to clearly represent the original design requirement to provide facilities for both Anglican and Nonconformist burial services.