Two Chapels And Gateway, Chippenham Cemetery

CHIPPENHAM

ST9372 LONDON ROAD 930-1/13/83 (South side) 22/06/78 Two chapels and gateway, Chippenham Cemetery (Formerly Listed as: LONDON ROAD Pair of Chapels and entrance gateway to Chippenham Cemetery)

II

Pair of cemetery chapels and gateway. 1854. Squared coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings, 3 steeply-pitched slate roofs with ashlar coping and moulded kneelers, bellcote, angled buttresses and low chamfered plinth. STYLE: Gothic Revival. PLAN: both chapels T-shaped. EXTERIOR: single-storey. A steeply gabled bellcote with a cast-iron finial crowns the central gable; below it is an empty niche with an angel-head plinth over a floating cornice with lion stops; the stilted pointed entrance arch and the 3-light pointed-arched windows with geometric tracery to flanking gables have head stops to the hoodmoulds. The entrances to the chapels are under the arch. The rear is similar, with steeply weathered buttresses to the chapels and doors in the rear of the lower side wings, the gable over the arch is set back with a diagonally-set square opening to the apex; similar chapel windows. INTERIOR: originally separate Church of England and Nonconformist chapels, that to the left is now a store and is said to be identical to that to the right now in use, which is virtually unchanged. Timber-framed roof with scissor brace on stone corbels to the rear, pointed arch and steps up to the apse, ashlar floor to the main block and arcading with foliate caps, door planked to the exterior and latticed inside with original lock. Original lectern reflecting the architectural style, simple pews and bier remain. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: linking the right-hand chapel to the caretaker's cottage (qv) is an elaborate crow-stepped arch approx 5m high flanked by approx 1m of wall with pierced trefoil coping. The steps are steeply coped with a medieval-style stone finial over a small shield in a niche. The wrought-iron gate and the double gates to the chapels have long/short railings with spikes to the tall ones, fleur-de-lis finials to the short ones and scrolls to the outer frame. A cast plaque states that they were made by HGP Hipps, engineer, Chippenham.

Listing NGR: ST9336972406