Ocklynge cemetery chapel

Ocklynge Cemetery Chapel

This is a pair of conjoined single-cell chapels, one Anglican and one nonconformist, arranged asymmetrically behind a screen wall and gates at the main entrance to the cemetery. The buildings are constructed from knapped flint with flush sandstone dressings, stone slate roofs with stone parapets, and the rear west gable wall of the nonconformist chapel is tile-hung.

The larger Anglican chapel is a two-bay structure with a southern buttressed gabled porch and an attached vestry beneath a pitched roof. It features stepped buttresses with stone copings, moulded stone cushion kneelers and a chamfered plinth, with plain stone parapets and a stone gable cross to the west. The chapel has mostly plate tracery windows; the west-facing window contains three cusped lights beneath cusped encircled trefoil lights, while the south elevation has a single light. The south porch has an outer pointed, moulded stone arch with a pair of vertically boarded framed doors fitted with strap hinges, a ring handle on an ornate iron plate and a similar plate to the keyhole. The vestry has a two-light window with flush dressings, though the glazing bars and mouldings have been removed. The principal elevation is the east gable, which displays an encircled quatrefoil window with one light blocked, above a pair of widely-spaced lancets, all beneath a flush relieving arch. Above this rises a tall open bellcote, supported by tall buttress shafts and surmounted by an iron gable cross.

The nonconformist chapel is slightly lower and smaller on plan, set back a little from the larger chapel. Its east-facing window contains three plain lights beneath three circular lights and has a stone encircled gable-end cross. The north-facing entrance, beneath a tall steeply-pitched gable flush with the elevation, has a shallow moulded four-centred outer arch framing a pair of framed and vertically boarded doors with heavy ornate iron fixtures and fittings.

The Anglican chapel interior has an arch-braced roof to the collars, lined in diagonally laid pine boarding. The walls are plastered and painted above pine matchboard panelled dados, now varnished. The porch is lined in exposed flint with a boarded roof, and encaustic tile floors extend from the porch into the chapel. Inner arches and reveals to windows and doors are simply chamfered. Internal doors match the external doors and feature heavy ornate iron fixtures and fittings including strap hinges, latches, door knobs and plates. The chapel interior has been reordered but retains some original benches, stripped and varnished. The vestry has an exposed pine roof lined with cupboards internally faced in pine boarding, with doors having similar furnishings to elsewhere.

The nonconformist chapel, now used as a maintenance store, is lined with a matchboard panelled dado and has a slender arch-braced roof. Internal doorways and window reveals are simply chamfered. Doors again feature heavy ornate iron fixtures and fittings including strap hinges, latches, door knobs and plates. It has a wood block floor.