Cockermouth Cemetery Chapels

The Cocker Mouth Cemetery Chapels, built in 1856 to a design by Charles Eaglesfield, comprise two chapels joined by a belfry tower with a spire, creating an entrance arch to the cemetery. Constructed from rock-faced stone with dressed stone features, the buildings have a graduated pitched slate roof. Plan consists of a Churchmen’s Chapel on the right and a Dissenters’ Chapel on the left, separated by a stilted pointed arch which provides access into the cemetery. Above the arch, a squat hexagonal tower with a tapering roof rises to support a hexagonal belfry topped with a spire and a foliated finial.

The chapels, symmetrical in design, have a timber-lined porch accessed from beneath the arch. Within the porch, timber plank doors with metal strap hinges lead to rooms on either side; one is a vestry, the other a storage space. Pointed arched timber plank doors with decorative metal strap hinges give access into the chapels themselves. Externally, the chapels are buttressed with stone chimney stacks rising above the buttresses adjoining the vestry and store rooms. All windows are pointed arched, and the gable ends incorporate a quatrefoil above the taller central window. Small stone crosses are fixed to the apex of each gable end, and above the apex of the entrance arch. A plinth runs around the entire building, with a string course beneath the base of the windows on the gable ends of both chapels.

Originally identical, the Churchmen’s Chapel is occasionally used for funerary services, while the Dissenters’ Chapel is used for storage. The Churchmen's Chapel has a timber floor and timber-lined walls to the level of the splayed windows, above which the walls are rendered and whitened. Both chapels have a collar-beamed braced roof. The Churchmen’s Chapel has open-backed benches and a small carved timber reading desk. The Dissenters’ Chapel has had all internal timber and seating removed and all but the gable-end windows blocked with metal sheeting.