Higher Cemetery Lodge

Higher Cemetery Lodge is a lodge house dating to approximately 1866, the year Exeter Cemetery was officially opened, although the cemetery itself had been established earlier. It was designed by Edward Ashworth, a leading Exeter architect known for church restoration. The lodge is constructed of snecked Heavitree stone with Bath stone dressings, and has a slate roof featuring horizontal bands of different coloured slates, fleur de lis finials to the ridge tiles, and cast iron rainwater goods. Rendered chimney shafts are also present. It is built in a Decorated Gothic Revival style.

The building is arranged with a main range one room deep and two rooms wide, accompanied by a rear service block with an M-shaped roof and axial chimney stacks. The two-storey front elevation features a central gabled porch with a slate roof and slit windows on either side. A pointed arched plank-and-cover-strip front door gives access to the lodge. To the left of the main entrance is a two-light stone window, and to the right a three-light window, both with trefoil-headed tops. Gable-ended half dormers, each with two lights, are set into the first floor. Diamond-paned glass is used in the windows. A canted bay window with a hipped roof and four high-transomed, trefoil-headed lights is set into the ground floor of the gable end, with a two-light window with trefoil-headed lights above, and a trefoil in the gable apex. The rear of the service block features a two-leaf plank door set into a cranked arch.

The right return elevation shows a gable end with a three-light window at ground floor and a two-light window at first. Both have high transomed lights with trefoil-headed tops, and a trefoil in the gable apex. The rear of the service block exhibits rear doors and two three-light casements at ground floor, along with a narrow, vertical-pane casement in each gable. The interior has not been inspected, but may contain features of interest.

The cemetery site originally covered ten acres, expanding to thirty-eight acres by the time of the First World War. Edward Ashworth had an office in Dix’s Field, Exeter and specialised in church restoration. The lodge is an attractive composition and relates to the nearby Mortuary Chapels.