Sotterley Cemetery Memorial Chapel

1062/0/10001 12-OCT-04

SOTTERLEY SOUTHWELL LANE Sotterley Cemetery Memorial Chapel

GV II

Cemetery chapel. c.1885. Possibly by Sir Arthur Blomfield. For the Barne family of nearby Sotterley Hall. Red brick with brick plinth and cornice and with stone dressings. Plain tile pyramidal roof with cross finial. Octagonal plan with gabled porches facing north and south. Gothic style with stepped buttresses to porches and angles of chapel. South porch has double doors within Gothic arch and gable has copings. Each of the faces of the chapel has a Gothic window with leaded glazing and stone surround. The north porch has stone arch, coped gable and a small quatrefoil window on each side. INTERIOR has plastered walls, boarded ceiling and pews backing onto the walls matching the octagonal shape. HISTORY. The chapel is likely to have been built shortly after the Sotterley Burial Board bought the land for the cemetery from the Sotterley Estate in 1883. The octagonal shape is exceptionally unusual for a cemetery chapel and it is possible that it was designed by the well-known architect, Sir Arthur Blomfield, who produced plans for the restoration of the nearby church in Sotterley Park before his death in 1899. The restorations were carried out for Lady Constance Barne in 1900. The Blomfields were landowners in the Ipswich and Stowmarket areas. This is a virtually intact and very unusual cemetery chapel of the late C19 which forms a good group with the First World War memorial (q.v.) nearby.

SOURCE. Brown, C., Haward, B., and Kindred, R., Dictionary of Architects of Suffolk Buildings 1800-1914, 1991.