Identification and description | |||||
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Name | UNDERCLIFFE CEMETERY | ||||
Location |
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Localisation | Latitude: 53.804216 Longitude: -1.7376891 National Grid Reference: SE 17373 34245 Map: Download a full scale map (PDF) |
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Overview | Heritage Category: Park and Garden Grade: II* List Entry Number: 1001387 Date first listed: 20-Jul-1998 |
Cemetery opened in 1854 which was designed by William Gay, and considered to be his
finest work. The core of the site contains many grand C19 monuments, and has been
described as 'one of the most striking achievements of Victorian funerary design'
(Brooks 1989).
HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT
The Cemetery was established by the Bradford Cemetery Company, which was provisionally
registered in 1849. Representatives of the company, who included prominent Non-conformist
businessmen Henry Brown, Titus Salt, Edward Ripley, and first Mayor of Bradford Robert
Milligan, bought the land at Undercliffe in 1851 at a cost of £3400. William Gay (1814-93),
who was appointed the first Registrar, laid out the site at a cost of £12,000. He
subsequently designed a number of cemeteries, chiefly in the north of England, of
which this is considered the most distinguished (Brooks 1994).
Plans were drawn up for the extension of the site to the west in 1876. These were
never carried out but the proposal map includes the whole of the existing site and
shows Gay's executed design. The Cemetery, which contains more than 23,000 graves
and approximately 124,000 interments, including those of many notable figures of C19
Bradford, remains open for burials (1998).
The site was sold to a private owner during the 1970s and was bought by Bradford City
Council in 1984; it is currently (1998) leased to The Undercliffe Cemetery Charity
as custodian of the site on behalf of the Local Authority.
DESCRIPTION
LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING The Cemetery is situated on the north-east
side of Bradford, c 3km from the city centre. The c 10ha site is on the crest of Undercliffe
Hill, c 210m above sea level. The land slopes down to the north and west, commanding
long-distance views of the city and the Pennines beyond. The boundaries are walled
and are formed by Undercliffe Lane on the south side, Undercliffe Old Road on the
east side, Otley Road on the north side, and by gardens of houses on Airedale Crescent
and Airedale College Road on the west side. An area at the north-east corner of the
site between Undercliffe Old Road and Otley Road is the site of a school, which replaced
a stonemason's yard shown on the 1876 map, and is outside the registered area.
ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES There are two main entrances, one on the south side of the
site, on Undercliffe Lane, where there are rebuilt stone walls and gate piers. A lodge
and a Registrar's Office in this position were demolished during the 1970s. They have
been replaced by a C19 stone lodge brought from another site and re-erected in the
late C20. The other entrance is on the north side of the site, on Otley Road. A lodge
which stood at this entrance was also demolished in the 1970s, but the stone walls
and gate piers survive.
PRINCIPAL BUILDING The principal buildings of the Cemetery were two chapels which
were situated slightly to the east of the centre of the site, overlooking a promenade.
These replaced chapels of 1854, and were designed in 1878 by Lockwood & Mawson. They
were demolished during the 1980s and the foundations are visible c 80m north of the
Undercliffe Lane entrance.
OTHER LAND The main axis of the Cemetery is a broad promenade which runs east/west
along a spine of high ground for almost the whole length of the site, dividing it
into two parts, the southern of which is slightly narrower than the northern. The
promenade, which is lined with striking C19 monuments, is connected with the entrances
by a system of straight and curving paths which conform with the layout shown on the
1876 map. The map also shows a line of planting dividing the more expensive plots
along the south side of the promenade from cheaper ones further to the south. This
has disappeared and the area is all in use as burial plots. A similar line of planting
separated the plots along the north side of the promenade from plots to the north,
and elements of this survive. Views to the north are obtained from the whole of the
promenade; at its west end the ground drops away steeply and there are long-distance
views to the south-west, west and north. This is the site of an obelisk (listed grade
II), c 10m in height, which forms the termination of the vista, and is a memorial
to Joseph Smith (d 1858) who was land agent to the Cemetery Company and reserved this
plot for himself. Some 100m north-east of this is a roughly circular area, with a
late C20, circular, open-work cast-iron structure at the centre, which was landscaped
in the late C20 for use as a memorial garden, though the landscaping was not completed.
The focus of the site is slightly east of the centre, where the two chapels were situated
on the south side of the promenade. The ground is terraced down on the north side
of the promenade, and a set of stone steps, aligned midway between the two chapel
sites, leads down the slope to a broad terrace on which an elliptical area, with quartering
paths, is delineated by a perimeter path. A second set of stone steps, aligned with
the first, leads down from the north side of this area and connects with winding paths
from the Otley Road entrance. Plots in this central area, like those on each side
of the promenade, were the most expensive, and they have a concentration of the largest
and most ornate of the C19 monuments. Those listed grade II are the Mawson Monument
and the Behrens Mausoleum on the north side of the promenade, the Swithin Anderton
Monument and the Illingworth Mausoleum within the central elliptical area, and the
Miles Moulson Monument c 80m to the north-east of this.
On the east side of the site, which was reserved for Nonconformist burials, there
is an area of Quaker burials which is situated c 110m north-east of the Undercliffe
Lane entrance and is distinguished by the modest rectangular memorial stones, all
of identical design and laid flat, which contrast with the ornate monuments of other
parts of the site.
There are the remains of C19 and later ornamental planting around the site perimeter,
from which it has encroached as scrub.
The design for Undercliffe was probably inspired by Joseph Paxton's Coventry Cemetery
of 1847 which incorporated an architectural terrace, and Gay's development of this
idea may have influenced Edward Kemp, whose layout of Anfield Cemetery in Liverpool
(qv), incorporates features such as a sunken elliptical area overlooked by a promenade
and a system of curving paths.
The Cemetery Directors were conscious of the recreational possibilities of the site.
In the 1850s they wrote: 'The situation of the Cemetery is one of great beauty, and
the views of the surrounding country ... are not to be surpassed in the neighbourhood
of Bradford. Whilst it will be the endeavour of the Directors, to preserve the greatest
possible decency and decorum, in the conduct of the interments, they also desire to
throw the Cemetery open to the public as much as possible ... and so long as propriety
of behaviour is observed, none will be excluded from the grounds, who desire to avail
themselves thereof, either as a place of relaxation or for contemplative retirement.'
(quoted in Beesley and James 1991). The site became a 'favourite promenade of the
inhabitants of Bradford' (ibid) and an engraving of c 1854 shows fashionably dressed
crowds walking in the Cemetery and pointing at the views of the city below.
REFERENCES
N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: West Yorkshire (2nd edn 1967) C Brooks, Mortal
Remains (1989), pp 58(9, 64, 68, 89, 105, 127-28, 140, 142 I Beesley and D James,
Undercliffe, Bradford's Historic Victorian Cemetery (1991) C Brooks, English Historic
Cemeteries, (theme study for English Heritage 1994), p 55 C Chapple, Undercliffe Cemetery
(c 1994)
Maps Map of the Borough of Bradford, 1834 (reproduced in Undercliffe Cemetery Information
Pack) Sale Map, 1851 (reproduced in Undercliffe Cemetery Information Pack) W Gay,
Bradford Cemetery Undercliffe, Plan Shewing Proposed Extension, 1876 Post Office Bradford
Directory Map, 1887/8 (reproduced in Undercliffe Cemetery Information Pack)
OS 6" to 1 mile: 2nd edition published 1912 1938 edition
Illustrations Engraving showing crowds promenading in Undercliffe Cemetery, nd (c
1854) (reproduced in Beesley and James 1991, p 31)
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION Undercliffe Cemetery is designated at Grade II* for the following
principal reasons: * A fine example of a late private cemetery (1852-54) for a provincial
city. * Designed by William Gay, a noted cemetery designer, a Picturesque informal
path pattern leading from the entrances is focussed on the central formal promenade
(formerly flanked and dominated by the chapels), which is lined with striking 19th
century monuments. * The cemetery layout survives relatively intact despite the loss
of the original two chapels and lodges. * The core contains many grand 19th century
monuments to Bradford's leading citizens; markers elsewhere include paupers' graves
Description written: January 1998 Amended: September 1998 Register Inspector: CEH
Edited: June 2000 Upgraded: November 2009
This garden or other land is registered under the Historic Buildings and Ancient Monuments Act 1953 within the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens by Historic England for its special historic interest.