Screen Walls To Main Entrance Of Arnos Vale Cemetery

Screen Walls to the Main Entrance of Arnos Vale Cemetery

The screen walls to the main entrance of Arnos Vale Cemetery date from 1837 and were designed by Charles Underwood as part of the principal entrance to the cemetery. They are constructed of limestone ashlar for the walls and piers, with the walls beyond the piers built of coursed stone rubble.

The walls adjoin the lodges and curve outwards towards Bath Road, where they meet paired ashlar piers that match those adjacent to the lodges. From these piers, the walls run parallel to Bath Road. The ashlar walls, approximately 2 metres high, are set on coursed stone plinths and capped with coping stones. The piers are topped with pedimented square caps decorated with dentils. The walls beyond the paired piers are for a short distance set on a squared and coursed stone plinth with a coped top.

The history of the site begins in the late 18th century when the land probably formed part of the estate associated with Arnos Court, a mansion built by William Reeves, a Bristol copper merchant, around 1760-65. Reeves became bankrupt in 1774 and his estate was divided and sold. During the early 19th century, a villa known as Arno's Vale was constructed to the west of Arnos Court within what would become the cemetery grounds. The villa, situated towards the north-eastern corner of the site, had an entrance approximately where the present principal entrance to the cemetery now stands.

By the mid-19th century, burial grounds attached to the city's churches were full. In 1837 the Bristol General Cemetery Company was formed and petitioned Parliament for an Act to establish a general cemetery near the City. Following the Act's passage, the Company purchased the Arnos Vale Estate and in 1838 demolished the villa. They commissioned Charles Underwood to design the layout of the site and to construct walls, lodges and chapels. This work was completed by October 1840 when the Anglican section of the cemetery was consecrated by the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. The cemetery saw a significant rise in interments only after 1855, when the city churchyards were finally closed. Between 1855 and 1880 the Company extended the burial area across the whole estate purchased in 1837. A second Act of Parliament in 1880 enabled the Company to purchase additional land to the south. A further extension was purchased in 1891. The western portion was laid out by 1904, with the remainder appropriated for burials by around 1944. In 1927, H G Laing of Lincoln's Inn, London designed a crematorium, cloister, columbarium and garden of rest around the 19th-century Nonconformists' chapel. These structures were developed in 1927-29 and remained in use until 1998. The site was subsequently compulsorily purchased by the local authority in partnership with the Arnos Vale Cemetery Trust, which now manages it.

The screen walls form part of the main entrance as designed by Charles Underwood in 1837 and are listed at Grade II for their architectural quality, their role as part of the principal access to this nationally significant cemetery, and their group value with the adjoining East and West Lodges and Gatepiers, also listed at Grade II, and the many listed buildings and monuments within the cemetery.