Bent Family Memorial

71/0/10031 Bent Family Memorial, Brookwood Cemetery 23-JUL-04

GV II Funerary monument to William Bent (d.1859). Designer unknown. Bath stone with shafts of Serpentine. The monument comprises a cruciform shrine, and is in poor condition at the time of inspection (2003). The top section comprises an octagonal spirelet over an arcaded belfry-like middle section. Below this is the solid core of the monument, with pointed inscription panels to each face, set behind projecting arcaded, gabled canopies, carried on six colonnettes each: two of the four canopies have collapsed. The surviving canopies are richly carved, with flamboyant tracery set over paired arches, enriched with foil cusps and decorated capitals; the angles and spandrels of the canopies are decorated with angel figures to the corners, and foliate carving elsewhere. HISTORY: Bent resided at The Grove, Walton-on-Thames. His monument, now in a lamentable state, would have been one of the earliest in Brookwood Cemetery, which opened in 1854. Strongly influenced by Venetian Gothic architecture as championed by John Ruskin, the monument would have been one of the most flamboyant examples of the genre in any cemetery. It survived in relatively good condition until relatively recently: see the photo in John M. Clarke, 'An Introduction to Brookwood Cemetery' (2nd ed. 2002). It remains of special interest in spite of its condition.