Bath Abbey Cemetery
The Anglican Bath Abbey Cemetery, officially dedicated as the Cemetery of St Peter and St Paul (the patron saints that Bath Abbey is dedicated to), was laid out by noted cemetery designer and landscape architect John Claudius Loudon (1783–1843) in 1843 on a picturesque hillside site overlooking Bath, Somerset, England. The cemetery was laid out between 1843 and 1844.
The cemetery was consecrated on 30th January 1844. It was a private Anglican cemetery financed by W. J. Broderick, Rector of Bath Abbey.
The layout is a mixture of formal and informal arranged along a central avenue. It features a mortuary chapel, designed by Bath City Architect G. P. Manners in the then fashionable Norman Revival architectural style.[1]
History
The eccentric William Thomas Beckford was originally buried here, but moved once its former retreat of Lansdown Tower was converted into Lansdown Cemetery (which was sold after his death and when it appeared that the buyer wanted to turn it into a pub and pleasure garden, Beckford’s daughter bought it back and presented it to the Rector of Walcot as a cemetery.) “The best monuments are slightly neo-Grecian with canopied tops, dating from the 1840s. Note that to S. M. Hinds d.1847 signed Reeves, the Bath firm of Monumental masons, that flourished from c.1778 to 1860….”[1]
The mortuary chapel,[2] along with 37 monuments in the cemetery are Grade II listed, and one monument surpasses the chapel in importance to be listed as Grade II*. A general trend is that the most elaborate monuments belong to individuals formerly residing at the most exclusive addresses. An interesting trend seems that clerics get Gothic Revival style style and military men typically get Greek Revival style monuments.[1]
Mortuary Chapel
The three-bay double-height chapel was built in 1844 to designs by George Phillips Manners in the Norman Revival architectural style by with a prominent west tower over a three-sided open porch / porte cochere. The chapel is built above a crypt and was planned to be flanked by open cloister wings containing a columbarium and loculi. Ever since the cemetery’s closure, the chapel has also been closed and in a deteriorating condition.[1] It was listed Grade II historic building on 5 August 1975.[3] The memorials in the cemetery were also proposed for listing but this has not happened yet. It remains owned by Bath Abbey, although a lease or sale was considered to Bath’s Orthodox church, which never materialized.
List of prominent memorials
- Robert Harvey Forsmann of St Petersburg (records infant death), of 15 Bennet Street, Walcot, a white marble memorial designed in the Greek Revival style [1]
- Doverton Chalmers Greetree Swan of Island of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) (records infant death) of 36 Pulteney, a white marble memorial designed in the Greek Revival style [1]
- John Gill (also Louise Gicnac) of 14 Bathwick Street, c. 1851, a white marble memorial designed in the Greek Revival style [1]
- Joseph Chaning Pearce of Montague House. Lambridge, c. 1847 (House became a museum to his 200 fossil collection), a polished pink granite, and polished stone plinth, designed in the Greek Revival style (Signed Rogers of Bath) [1]
- Ellen Maria Lamb of New Bond Street, St Michael’s, c. 1856, a polished stone memorial, designed in the Greek Revival style [1]
- Julius Hall of 45 Pulteney Street, c. 1869, a white marble memorial obelisk designed in the Gothic Revival style [1]
- Charles Pratt of Combe Grove Manor, c. 1844, a white marble mini temple memorial designed in the Greek Revival style [1]
- Henry John Sharpe, Merchant of New York, of Royal Hotel, St James, Doric Column on Pediment WM- designed in the Greek Revival style (Signed by Treasure Mason) [1]
- James Weeks Williams of 6 Claremont Place, Walcot, c.1848, a marble classical revival mini temple (signed White) [1] “The Williams Memorial[4] is a white marble miniature open Greek temple raised up on a penant stone pedestal. Four pained sets of fluted columns with lotus and acanthus leaf capitals support a canopy over a draped urn flashed by an angel and a female mowner. The equally elaborate inscription is to Jane Wiliams who died at her residence, 17 Kensington Place, Bath, in 1848 aged 88. One side of the base commemorates 17-year-old Henry Williams, ‘who by accidentally falling off the West India docks in a dense London fog was unfortunately drowned’ in 1853.” [5]
- Elizabeth Ingram of 11 South Parade, c. 1845, a memorial designed in the Norman Revival architectural style
- Mary Ann Hunter of 7 Edward Street, c. 1869, a white marble cross memorial designed in the Gothic Revival style
- Robert Neale of Butt Ash Cottage, Widcombe, c. 1873, a white marble obelisk designed in the Gothic Revival style
- Ann Partis of 58 Pulteney, c. 1846 (Listed II*), a white marble memorial designed in the Greek Revival style
- Lt. Col. Richard Tatton of Blyth, Northumberland, c. 1867, a white marble obelisk designed in the Greek Revival style
- Eleanor Moody of Pulteney Street, c. 1844
- Edwin Augustus Lawton of St Mary’s Buildings, Lyncombe, c.1863, a white marble headstone designed in the Gothic Revival style
- Capt. Peter Gapper of Easton Home, Beechen Cliff, c. 1866, a white marble obelisk designed in the Greek Revival style
- Charles Hamper of the Grove, Bathampton, c.1866, a polished stone memorial designed in the Gothic Revival style
- John Hay Clive of Hastings (late of Bathwick Hill), c. 1853, a memorial designed in the Greek Revival style
- Benjamin Plim Bellamy of Beacon Hill, Walcot, c.1847, a polished stone monument designed in the Greek Revival style (Signed Reeves)
- Charles Richardson (briefly) of New Bond Street, c. 1890 (drowned in River Avon), a polished stone memorial designed in the Greek Revival style
- William Westall of 1 George’s Place, Bathwick Hill, c. 1853, a polished stone obelisk memorial, designed in the Greek Revival style
- Rev. Edward Tottenham of Marlborough Buildings, Walcot, c. 1853, a polished stone memorial designed in the Gothic Revival style
- Rev. Nathan Ashby of Combe Down, Monkton Combe, (same as Tottenham), a polished stone memorial designed in the Gothic Revival style
References