LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING Compton Cemetery is situated on the north-east side of Compton village on the north-west side of Budburrow Hill. The c 0.75ha site is formed of two terraced strip fields, remnants of the medieval field system.
The site is bounded by modern low red-brick walls topped with railings to the north; these may have replaced the panels referred to in the parish council minutes of 1957. The original iron railings bound the site to the west but to the east side they have been replaced by modern chain link fencing.
ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES The cemetery is approached from Down Lane and the entrance is marked by a lychgate erected by the Wattses in 1897. The lychgate is of oak with decorative ironwork, a tiled roof and brick floor.
PRINCIPAL BUILDINGS The Watts Memorial Chapel of 1896 is listed Grade I. Built and decorated by Mary Watts and the villagers of Compton, highly original in concept, form and decoration, the chapel is a fine example of an Arts and Crafts building. Of red brick with exterior terracotta friezes and mouldings combining intertwining Celtic ribbonwork and Art Noveau tendrils, and the interior richly painted gesso panels, the chapel has a vivid dramatic decoration symbolising her husband’s concept of the House of Life. The altar is inscribed ‘This chapel designed by Mrs Watts, wife of G F Watts OMRA, was built in 1896 by her and the people of Compton. It is dedicated to the memory of all who rest near its walls’.
Mary also designed a red brick Italianate Watts Memorial Cloister (listed Grade II) which was completed in 1907 on the top of the hill to house a memorial to her husband. It has been likened to the Loggia in Postman’s Park, a small memorial garden in the City of London, which was designed by George Watts in 1887. Unlike the shelter at Postman’s Park, however, the cloister is both an ambulatory and a place of contemplation, with views south-west across to Compton village and the surrounding countryside. Its style is Italianate and reminiscent of Catholic processional covered ways.
CEMETERY Compton Cemetery is an exceptional and unusual site comprising an holistic scheme of buildings and gravestones of notable quality in the Arts and Crafts style. The cemetery conveys a freedom of spirit and a distinct character largely the conception of its creator Mary Watts and the villagers of Compton. In addition to the principal buildings are an imposing and extensive group of terracotta graves (two Grade-II listed) and a well head (listed Grade II) many made by the Potters’ Arts Guild of Compton.
The cemetery is divided by Bargate stone paths which lead up the slope. The main north-south path curves around the site up to the chapel and then continues onto the cloister. Another path runs up the east side of the site to the cloister. The Bargate stones are laid flat except on the slope where they are pitched in order to prevent slipping. A sinuous east-west Bargate stone path joins the north-south ones to aid circulation around the site. Another Bargate stone path leads to the cemetery lodge (outside the registered area), and is probably a more recent addition, as is a gravel path joining the two main Bargate stone north-south paths. At the top of the hill the 1950s extension is clearly marked as the Bargate stone path abuts a gravel path and this continues south down the hill slope.
Many Potters’ Arts Guild terracotta crosses, headstones and kerbstones can be seen in the cemetery reflecting Mary’s artistic influence. Two are listed Grade II: one to Margery Gillett, wife of H H Gillett, rector of Compton; and one to Julian Russell Sturgis (1848-1904), novelist. Mary and George Wattses graves are included in the cloister List entry. Other monuments made in Mary’s Potters’ Arts Guild in the cemetery include that to H H Gillett (1836-1915), who was rector when the cemetery was conceived. The ashes of the writer Aldous Leonard Huxley (1894-1963), who wrote ‘Brave New World’ in 1932, are interred in his parents’ grave. An ornamented terracotta well head (listed Grade II) was designed by Mary in 1906 and is inscribed on the top sides with ‘the lord god planted a garden eastward in eden and a river went out of eden to water the garden’. The ornamental cast-iron bucket apparatus stands next to the well as seen in a photograph of 1906. The well is surrounded by an arc-shaped yew hedge.
The use of local materials, Bargate stone and clay, lend unity to the design as does the use of red bricks and tiles made locally in Guildford and Puttenham, ironwork by the Compton blacksmith, and Mary’s Potters’ Arts Guild terracotta decorations and gravestones, all of which follow Arts and Crafts ideals and traditions.
Particular attention was given to appropriate planting such as dark-foliaged evergreens including cedar and yew to evoke mourning and contemplation; the fastigate Irish yews Mary also planted for practical reasons along the paths as they do not spread out much as they grow. An English rural churchyard with meandering paths and native trees is invoked by the large deciduous trees which lend Compton the air of an ancient churchyard. Two large cedar of Lebanon trees stand by the north boundary wall and there are several mature beech trees on the east boundary and one stands beside the chapel. Elsewhere the planting is mainly of smaller semi-mature holly and yew with some cherry trees.
With serpentine paths, the hillside site offers a variety of views and a quietness of tone is invoked by the overall conception of the design and with the cemetery on its own in rural surroundings.