Dissenters' Cemetery Chapel, Superintendent's Cottage, Gatepiers and Railings

Dissenters' Cemetery Chapel, Superintendent's Cottage, Gatepiers and Railings

This cemetery complex comprises a chapel, superintendent's cottage, boundary railings and gatepiers set on a plot of approximately 0.54 hectares with a narrow frontage to Vallis Road, extending back north-eastwards in a roughly rectangular shape. The cottage stands at the south-western end fronting the road, while the chapel is set back about 20 metres behind the entrance gates and accessed from the south-west. A path from the chapel forks northeastwards with lateral paths serving the rest of the cemetery.

The chapel and cottage are built from local stone rubble brought to course with stone dressings. The chapel is roofed in red clay tile and the cottage in slate, with a small brick extension to the lodge in red brick. The gatepiers are of stone with iron railings and gates.

The chapel is the focal point of the cemetery, designed in an Italian Romanesque style. It is a two-bay structure set on a moulded plinth with the bay structure articulated by pilasters, those at the ends of the elevations featuring short offsets finishing just below eaves level. Moulded cill and shoulder bands run along the long elevations. The roof has high coped verges and a Lombard frieze runs under the eaves of the gables and both long elevations.

The entrance is set in the main south-west gable elevation, consisting of round-arched double doors with foliate strap hinges set deeply within a gabled recess. This recess has a moulded semi-circular arch with drip-mould and zig-zag moulding springing from single detached shafts of contrasting red stone on either side, with cushion capitals. The attached gable above features moulded kneelers and dressed-stone pilasters flanking the detached shafts. High towards the gable apex is a circular window with drip mould and tracery in the form of a five-pointed star. Each long elevation has two single-light round-headed windows set under slightly-recessed round arches springing from cushion capitals atop single detached shafts. The rear elevation has a single-light window of similar size without further embellishment.

The chapel interior is an undivided single cell with a flagstone floor set diagonally and plastered, painted walls. The splayed window openings to the long elevations are unrelieved, except for the north-east end window which recreates the external form with detached shafts and a shallow-recessed round arch. Long timber stalls with fielded fronts and moulded tops run along the long sides. The roof features false hammer-beam trusses with curved braces forming a semi-circular arch between the truncated tie beam and principal rafters. Single purlins support the structure and the lower curved braces below the tie beams spring from moulded stone corbels.

The cottage is in round-arched Italianate style, two storeys, originally comprising a short gabled range running back from the road and another range at right-angles. The original building has high coped verges to the roof with moulded stone kneelers, stone stack, and round-arched window openings containing timber casement windows. A moulded string course runs between ground and first floors and a slightly projecting plinth sits below. A later extension running north-eastwards from the rear matches the coped verges and includes rectangular window openings in dressed-stone surrounds and a stone stack.

The main elevation features a slightly-projecting gable to the left, with the cross-range extending for a single bay to the right. The gable contains a slightly-projecting ground-floor window bay housing a two-light round-arched window flanked by pilasters matching those on the chapel. Above this is a two-light round-arched window and in the attic a circular breather. To the right, the bay has a round-arched entrance doorway with a single-light round-arched window above.

The south-eastern elevation facing the cemetery contains a gabled section with another round-arched entrance doorway, slightly narrower than the main elevation entrance, giving access to the lobby where registrations and official business took place. The door is round-arched, ledged and braced with decorative cross braces. A narrow single-light round-headed window sits just to its right. Above are two larger single-light round-arched windows with a circular breather in the attic. To the right of this gabled section runs the bay added in 1915 with two-over-two sash windows to ground and first floors. The north-eastern gable end has similar windows, one each to ground and first floors, to the right of the stack. The north-western elevation of the added bay is blind, running directly into the original rear wall flush with it. The first floor of the original range has a two-light round-headed window and to its right a slightly-projecting section of stonework expressing the chimney breast externally; the stack has been removed. The ground floor is largely obscured by an L-shaped single-storey lean-to extension in red brick added around 1982, which is not of architectural interest.

The cottage interior has suffered significant fire and water damage. The ground floor contains an entrance lobby accessible both from the road and cemetery, formerly used by the superintendent for official business. Beyond this is a timber winder stair, a twentieth-century replacement apparently in the original position, with a later twentieth-century replacement handrail. The remainder of the original building's ground floor is a single large room with a fireplace set flush within the wall in a segmental-arched opening without grate or surround. A fitted cupboard with a plain two-panel door sits in the depth of the original rear wall. Adjacent to the fireplace is a door into the 1982 extension, which contains a kitchen, store and WC. A doorway to the rear of the main ground-floor room accesses the 1915 extension, a single large room with a twentieth-century tile fireplace surround. The original ground-floor rooms have moulded skirting boards and some door surrounds. The first floor of the original building has three rooms and a landing; three partitions have been partially or completely removed. One room retains a plain late nineteenth or early twentieth-century timber fire surround, though the grate has been removed. No other features remain. The roof is largely inaccessible but the visible area shows a simple truss made from paired principal rafters supported by an iron strut rising to the ridge from the tie beam.

The front boundary comprises railings set on an arc on a dressed stone plinth, with a central gateway. The gatepiers are constructed from dressed stone with moulded pyramidal caps and raised fields to front and back with moulded corners. Projecting shoulders to left and right carry affixed iron railings with gadrooned heads and iron gates formed from similar uprights. The railings terminate in piers which are slightly smaller versions of the central gatepiers.