LOCATION, SETTING, LANDFORM, BOUNDARIES, AND AREA: Utley Cemetery is sited on a north east facing hillside, extending down hill from the Skipton Road (the main road between Keighley and Utley) to the railway. Although surrounded by suburban houses on three sides, the cemetery has an open aspect to the countryside of the River Aire flood plain with Rombalds Moor beyond to the north east. The boundaries are walled and follow Skipton Road on the south-west side, Cemetery Lane on the south-east and north-east side and the gardens of Birchwood Drive to the north-west. The cemetery, excluding the C20 extensions to the north, covers an area of just over 3.7ha.
ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES: there are two main entrances into the cemetery: the grandest is a pedestrian entrance to the south, at the junction of Skipton Road and Cemetery Lane. This is a large, stone arched gateway, Gothic Revival in style, with a two-centred arch with a carved date of 1856 surmounted by a foliated cross, the entrance closed with iron gates. Immediately inside this gateway is the former sexton's house, a simply detailed but little altered two storey gabled building with a large central chimney stack. The second principal entrance is the carriage entrance off Skipton Road. This is a simple gateway set slightly back from the road with iron gates hung from Gothic, spire topped gate piers. The flanking wing walls have decorative iron railings. Just inside the entrance to the west is the former Registrar's house, now used as offices. This is a T plan house which is also simply detailed, but with slightly more Gothic elaboration than displayed with the sexton's house.
On the north west side of the cemetery there is a modern access via a footbridge over the railway line. This connects to the later extensions to the cemetery created in the C20.
PRINCIPAL BUILDING: the cemetery, as originally designed, had a matching pair of mortuary chapels facing each other across the line of the carriage entrance drive. Only the Non-Conformist chapel survives. This is small, cruciform in plan with steeply pitched roofs and three light windows with either geometric tracery (to the transepts) or curvilinear tracery (to the east window).
CEMETERY: the cemetery is elongated to the north west and south east. It is divided into two across its shorter axis by a straight path continuing the line of the entrance drive north eastwards, with consecrated ground for Church of England burials to the north west and Non-Conformist burials to the south east. Two areas at the bottom of the hillside on the Non-Conformist side are reserved for Roman Catholic burials. The mortuary chapels were built on a levelled terrace to the centre of the cemetery, either side of this axial route at the end of the short carriage drive. The very highest status burial plots are found along the north eastern edge of this terrace, including the Butterfield family mausoleum which is grade II listed with its small chapel sited on the upper terrace, with a burial vault below accessed from the middle terrace. The middle terrace is accessed from the upper terrace via a flight of steps flanked by yew trees. This middle terrace has an elliptical path and is tightly filled with high status burials marked by a wide range of elaborate monuments including obelisks, urns, and Celtic crosses amongst more traditional head stones. The axial path continues down via a second flight of steps to the lower part of the cemetery with the Roman Catholic burial ground to the south east and lower status Church of England burials to the north west, both areas having fewer, generally simpler memorials. Access to the rest of the cemetery is provided by a network of broad, curving paths leading off the central axis, allowing for a variety of circular walks which also link through to the pedestrian entrance in the south eastern corner of the cemetery. There are also several narrower, more naturalistic paths which curve through areas of planting, forming short cuts between the broader, more formal paths. Beyond the densely occupied middle terrace, memorials are scattered throughout the cemetery, with higher concentrations tending to be found in the upper, southern parts of the area. The cemetery as a whole retains a number of mature trees including copper beech, cedar, Corsican pine, willow, holly and yew, at least a proportion of which is thought to derive from the original planting scheme.