Monument record MDR9805 - Belper Cemetry, Matlock Road, Broadholm, Belper

The site is shown on a late 19th century OS map as 'Belper Cemetery', with the chapel to the north marked as 'Dissenters Chapel', the chapel to the south marked as 'Episcopal Chapel', and a 'Lodge' at the eastern entrance. An OS map at the end of the 19th century and an early 20th century OS map show the cemetery to have expanded to the south-east, with the chapel to the north marked as 'Mortuary Chapel (Nonconformist)' and the chapel to the south marked as 'Mortuary Chapel (Church of England)'. Modern mapping shows the cemetery to have expanded to the south. (1, 2, 3) The Belper Burial Board, formed in 1857, consists of nine members. The Cemetery is situated on the Matlock Road, and was consecrated in 1859. It comprises about fifteen acres, tastefully laid out, and cost £7,500. There are two handsome mortuary chapels, of Gothic design, with tower, surmounted by a spire. The chapels are lighted by tracery-headed windows. The lodge is a substantially-built stone residence. (4) The chapels at Belper Cemetery are a Grade II building built in 1859 as a single Decorated style building consisting of two identical chapels flanking a central entrance arch and linked to it by one storey, one window sections on each side. The building is constructed from coursed stone with buttresses and a banded slate roof. There is a tower with a broach spire above the arch. The building stands high on the hill slope and is a local landmark. (5) The Lodge at the entrance to Belper Cemetery is a Grade II Gothic style building built in 1859. It is constructed from coursed stone with a banded tiled roof, coped gable ends, a small fleche and a large chimney. It is of one and a half storeys in an irregular plan, buttressed and gabled. (6) Belper Cemetery has been added to the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens. In response to an urgent need for more burial space, the Belper Burial Board was formed in May 1857 and land was purchased for a new cemetery. By the following November the plans of Edward Holmes, a Birmingham architect, had been selected for the cemetery buildings - a lodge and twin mortuary chapels. At the same time William Barron was approached to produce an estimate for the laying out and draining of the proposed cemetery. In March 1859 William Barron's planting plan was approved and on June 16 1859 the land was consecrated. When the cemetery opened in 1859, 1st, 2nd and 3rd class ground was designated for burial, the 1st class ground largely situated in the highest part of the cemetery. The layout of the cemetery is both elegant and practical, maximising the potential of the steep site. A particularly fine collection of specimen trees and shrubs can be found, many of which date from the cemetery's establishment in the mid-19th century. (7)