Shankill Graveyard Gateway, Boundary Wall and Railings, Shankill Road, Belfast, County Antrim

Shankill Graveyard Gateway, Boundary Wall and Railings

Building Type, Date and Context

This is a Victorian classical style gateway and enclosing boundary structure forming the entrance to Shankill Graveyard on the north side of Shankill Road in Belfast. The gateway and associated structures were erected in the first half of the 19th century, most likely in the late 1830s to early 1840s, and are attributed to the architects Tulloch and Fitzsimons. The gate piers first appear on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, and an inscription discovered on one of the sandstone boundary piers dates to 1850, narrowing the likely construction date to between 1833 and 1850. The graveyard itself is one of the most historically significant in Belfast, standing in what was formerly the townland of Edenderry and occupying ground that has served as a burial place for well over a thousand years.

Architectural Description

The gateway and boundary are constructed in several distinct materials. The main enclosing walls are laid in coursed rock-faced rubble basalt masonry with stone coping, rendered on the street-facing side. Wrought iron railings with a top rail and pointed railing heads enclose the southern boundary, while stone walls form the northern, eastern and western boundaries.

The gate piers and four boundary piers are built in ashlar Giffnock sandstone. Each pier is square in section with panelled sides, a cornice and a projecting plinth, topped by semi-circular coping stones carved with honeysuckle ornamentation. The proportions are well considered and the carved detailing is of good quality. A bronze plaque bearing the Belfast City Council coat of arms is fixed to each gate pier, and an Ordnance Survey benchmark is carved into the base of the western gate pier. The gates themselves are of wrought iron.

Within the graveyard, two of the four boundary piers — positioned at mid-west and mid-east — also function as headstones. The mid-west pier is inscribed as the Cunningham family burial place; the inscription on the mid-east pier is now illegible.

The Watch-House

Surviving remains of a rectangular-plan watch-house are attached to the western boundary wall. The structure stands to approximately one metre in height, with coursed basalt walling topped by a square-section concrete capping. A memorial and a gravestone are located within the watch-house walling. The watch-house was built in 1830, as recorded in the Belfast Newsletter of that year, by two prominent local businessmen, William Sayers and Israel Milliken. It was provided for families who wished to stand guard over recently buried relatives — body-snatching for use in unlicensed human autopsies being common at the time. It was made redundant following the passing of the Anatomy Act in 1832.

The Statue of Queen Victoria and Niche

At the centre of the graveyard stands a statue of Queen Victoria sculpted in 1897 in Portland stone by John Cassidy, a Manchester-based sculptor. The statue originally stood outside Christ Church School on College Square North, Belfast, before being moved to Rowallane Garden in County Down. It was repaired and relocated to Shankill Rest Garden in 2003. The statue stands within a sandstone lancet arch niche with a hood mould and colonnettes, incorporated within red brick walling. A bronze plaque bearing Queen Victoria's initials is fixed to this walling.

Layout of the Graveyard

The graveyard is laid out with two crossing paved pathways forming a cross-plan, with the statue of Queen Victoria placed prominently at the crossing point. A number of headstones and memorials are fixed to the boundary walls or propped against them, and randomly positioned gravestones remain in the grassed areas. The graveyard is surrounded by housing to the north, east and north-west. A separate Garden of Reflection lies to the west, with a second access point through the boundary wall connecting the two spaces.

Historical Background

Shankill takes its name from the Gaelic word seanchill, meaning "old church," and was the site of St. Patrick's, the medieval parish church of Belfast. St. Patrick's was first recorded in the Papal Taxation of Pope Nicholas in 1306 and remained Belfast's parish church until 1776, when St. Anne's Church was constructed on Donegall Street. The graveyard beside it served the parish for many centuries. In 1957 the Director of Parks and Cemeteries for Belfast, Reginald Wesley, noted that evidence existed of the site being used as a burial place for over a thousand years, citing the discovery in 1858 of pieces of bronze covering from a bishop's staff, identified by its spiral carving as belonging to the 9th century.

The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832 to 1833 shows the graveyard at roughly half its current size, occupying only the southern portion of the present site, bounded on its eastern side by the river Farset. It also depicts the watch-house, built in 1830. By the time of the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, the graveyard had been expanded to its present size and the sandstone gate piers had been constructed.

The development of the graveyard in this period was a direct response to the rapid industrialisation and urbanisation of the area. The growth of the linen industry brought bleachworks, beetling mills, bleach greens and at least ten bleaching complexes to the West Belfast area in the opening decades of the 19th century, the majority drawing on the waters of the Farset and Forth rivers. Rows of workers' housing followed, and the frequency of burials at Shankill increased accordingly. As historian R. S. J. Clarke records, by the beginning of the 19th century the cemetery had changed from a rural community graveyard serving the immediate locality to a town cemetery drawing burials from linen settlements across West Belfast, including Glenalina, Ligoniel, Old Park and Springfield.

Despite being more than doubled in size, the graveyard was quickly overwhelmed and was considered inadequate by the 1860s. To relieve pressure on Belfast's church graveyards, the Corporation established a municipal cemetery on the Falls Road in 1869 and a Roman Catholic cemetery at Millfield in 1872. During the 1880s, the gateway and boundary of Shankill Graveyard served as the terminus of the Shankill Horse Tramway Line, with Clarke noting this was perhaps to attract Sunday visitors, Sabbath Day grave visiting being a popular practice in Victorian Belfast. The tramway use was abandoned by the 1890s.

From 1938 onwards, new burials were discontinued by order of the Ministry of Home Affairs, except in scheduled cases. By 1957 an inspection by the Parks and Cemeteries office found the graveyard in a state of serious disrepair — graves sunken, headstones fallen, and pathways indistinguishable beneath overgrowth. Belfast Corporation acquired the site in 1958 with the intention of converting it into a Rest Garden. The conversion involved removing all gravestones bearing illegible inscriptions while preserving memorials of historic importance, and laying out new paths. The Director of Parks and Cemeteries described the aim as granting the public a valuable open space in a congested part of the city while preserving the history and dignity of the graveyard and giving no affront to relatives of those buried there. The restoration cost £19,500. The Rest Garden was officially opened on 3rd June 1961. The clearance unfortunately resulted in the removal of the great majority of the historic gravestones.

It is not known whether the boundary walls or gateway were restored as part of the 1958 conversion works. The boundary wall fronting onto Woodvale Road was restored in 2008, being re-rendered in lime at a cost of almost £5,000. The gateway, boundary walls and piers were listed in 1987.

Setting

The graveyard fronts onto the north side of Shankill Road and is enclosed by stone walling with railings to the south and stone walls to the north, east and west. It is surrounded by housing to the north, east and north-west. A Garden of Reflection lies immediately to the west, accessed through the western boundary wall. Although the conversion to a Rest Garden resulted in the loss of many historic gravestones, the site continues to represent a significant testimony to the history and development of one of Belfast's oldest districts. The statue of Queen Victoria, the watch-house remains and the gateway itself together contribute to the considerable historical interest of the site.