Borough Cemetery Gate House And Attached Railings

The Borough Cemetery Gate House and attached railings, located on Devonshire Road in Barrow-in-Furness, were built in 1874 by the architectural firm Paley and Austin. This cemetery gatehouse features coursed limestone with red sandstone dressings and a graduated slate roof. It is designed as a two-storey, three-bay structure with a one-storey, two-window office in the left side wing and a two-storey lodge on the right, which has a rear wing. The attached railings are set in quadrants on each side and return to align with the pavement.

The architectural style is Romanesque, characterized by a chamfered plinth and quoins. A tall central carriage arch is recessed between pedestrian side gates, with each opening featuring keeled arches of two orders linked by an impost string course, along with original iron gates. The facade includes two bands and a first-floor sill band beneath blind arcading, with a taller central window and larger windows in the outer bays, all set in two-order arches. A band beneath the parapet has triangular copings built up in two courses. The hipped roof is adorned with a multiple-flue ashlar stack at each end and terracotta ridge cresting.

The office wing on the left has a buttress against the left return, paired windows with colonnettes, and an impost string course, topped with a coped end gable. The lodge on the right is similar but taller and lacks first-floor windows on the front. The rear features two dated rain-water heads, and the office has a shallow, canted bay window. Inside, the archway has ribbed vaulting, with two-bay arcades and barrel vaults on each side.

The railings consist of panels fixed between sandstone piers that rise from dwarf walls, featuring square bars, twin top rails, and finials of two heights. Surviving drawings from November 1873 indicate that there was originally a central bell tower with a spire, along with other architectural details such as shafts and mouldings that have since been removed.