Mortuary Chapel

WALCOT STREET 656-1/31/1783 (East side) Mortuary Chapel 12/06/50 (Formerly listed as WALCOT STREET (East side) Norman Chapel)

GV II

Former mortuary chapel. Dated 1842. By James Wilson. MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar, slate roof. PLAN: Four-bay restrained cruciform plan. EXTERIOR: Neo-Norman cemetery chapel. Open west bay with arched opening to each face forming porch. Hybrid cornices (part modillions, part billets) to gables to east and west and to crossings, that to west front has stone cross-in-circle finial and dated shield, that to east end has bellcote with machicolated cornice over semicircular arched opening. Arches at west end with scalloped capitals to engaged columns, moulded string course at impost level that encircles building and rises as dripmoulds over semicircular arched windows. Plinth to rear and returns meets floor of porch. Double doors each with three vertical moulded panels have large studs to frames. Buttresses reach string course between windows, angled at corners. Two C20 plain two-pane semicircular arched windows to each return and wider two-light windows to rear; crossings have leaded spandrels. Above window to rear blind cross loop-hole, below splayed arch with blocked double railing gates. INTERIOR: Plain interior with shallow groin vault to ceiling, no intact fittings apart from a small fireplace to north-east corner, intended to warm the minister. There is a large vault beneath the chapel which exploits the fall in the land level. HISTORY: The Walcot burial ground is not shown on the 1790 'A New Plan of the City of Bath' but is marked on the 1793 'A New and Accurate Plan of the City of Bath'. Neo-Norman was an unusual style, and one deemed appropriate for cemetery buildings: Manners's chapel at the Abbey Cemetery was built in this style shortly after this example. In recent years this building has been used as Walcot village hall, and as an exhibition venue. The burial ground contains numerous memorials, mainly of Pennant Stone: these are said to include that of the writer Fanny Burney, (d.1840), who was buried with her husband General Alexandre D'Arblay (d.1818); her stone was renewed in 1902. Other notable interments here include William Hoare RA and Admiral Sir Edward Berry (d.1831) who fought at the Nile and Trafalgar. The burial ground was closed in 1875. The building was near-derelict by the mid 1970s.

Listing NGR: ST7515565528