Hartshill Cemetery (also known as Stoke Cemetery)

There are arcaded mortuary chapels with Romanesque profile. The layout of paths creates a strong processional direction. The symmetrical tree planting near the chapels becomes more informal to the west. There is a variety of species including birch, plane, lime, mountain ash, yew and variegated holly.

The grounds were divided into Church of England, Roman Catholic and Nonconformist areas and also according to the amount paid for the burial. First class burials are at the upper end, graded down to fourth class at the lower end. The cemetery was extended in 1904 to the north and again in the 1930s to the south west.

The following is from the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest. For the most up-to-date Register entry, please visit the The National Heritage List for England (NHLE):

www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list

A late-C19 municipal cemetery laid out to the design of Edward Milner & Son, with buildings by Charles Lynam.

SITE DESCRIPTION

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Hartshill or Stoke Cemetery is situated to the west of Queen's Road, a late-C19 road which extends south from Hartshill to Penkhull, passing to the west of the Royal Staffordshire Infirmary. The c 10ha site is bounded to the east by Queen's Road, from which it is separated by a late-C19 brick wall surmounted by ornamental metal railings. From within the cemetery, this boundary is screened by an artificially raised bank which is planted with mature trees and ornamental shrubbery. To the south-east a late-C20 metal fence separates the cemetery from domestic properties and a school, while to the south-west the registered site is adjoined by the 1930s cemetery extension. The western boundary is formed by metal fences screened by trees and shrubs, which enclose the site from domestic properties to the east of Lodge Road, while to the north, further hedges and fences separate the cemetery from early-C20 allotments to the south of Thornburrow Drive. The site slopes gently from east to west, with variations of landform being provided through artificial mounding which formed part of the original cemetery scheme. The extensive planting within the cemetery and on its boundaries precludes views from within the site.

ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES

Hartshill Cemetery is approached from Queen's Road to the east, with entrances at the north-east and south-east corners of the site. The principal entrance is situated to the north-east, at a point c 120m south of the junction of Queen's Road and Thornburrow Drive, and comprises a pair of late-C19 wrought-iron carriage gates supported by a pair of tall brick and stone piers surmounted by carved stone pyramidal caps, which are flanked by brick and stone quadrant walls supporting wrought-iron railings. A picturesque two-storey brick lodge with ornamental barge-boards and other details stands to the north-west of the entrance. Known as Ivy Lodge, this building was originally provided a residence and office for the cemetery registrar, and was presumably designed by Charles Lynam as part of the original scheme for the cemetery. The south-east entrance is of similar design to the principal entrance, with a simpler two storey brick lodge to the north-west, which was intended to provide accommodation for the sexton. A further pedestrian entrance leads into the cemetery from a footpath which extends parallel to the western boundary of the site at a point c 300m west-south-west of the chapels. This entrance is shown on the 1898 OS.

PRINCIPAL BUILDING

Hartshill Cemetery is provided with two chapels (listed grade II) which stand c 250m south-south-west of the principal entrance, and which form the focal point of the landscape design. The chapels are symmetrically designed with the Anglican chapel to the north-west and the nonconformist chapel to the south-east linked by a central arcade. The chapels are of identical design, and are constructed in Romanesque style from red and blue brick with stone details under tiled roofs. Each chapel has a central tower, formerly surmounted by a squat spire and pinnacles. Gabled wings project from each face of the central square tower, with a single-storey flat-roofed porch extending from the eastern wing beneath an elaborate rose window. The chapels were designed by the Stoke on Trent architect Charles Lynam, who had an extensive ecclesiastical and municipal practice in the area in the late C19, as part of the original scheme for the cemetery (listed building description). The number of chapels to be provided was the subject of local dispute, with some ratepayers favouring a single structure on the grounds of economy. However the Mayor, Colin Minton Campbell and other leading members of the Council were committed members of the Church of England and ensured that a resolution requiring the erection of two chapels was passed (Hartshill Cemetery Walk).

OTHER LAND

Hartshill Cemetery is laid out with a series of curvilinear drives and walks which divide the site into irregularly-shaped burial areas devoted to different denominations and classes of burial. The principal drives are planted with avenues of mature limes, while other mature specimen trees are planted in groups in the burial areas. Many of the groups of trees are under-planted with ornamental shrubbery, principally composed of evergreen species, which are planted on artificially raised mounds. These serve to provide visual interest on this gently sloping site, frame vistas of the chapels, and form a background to groups of significant monuments arranged in visually prominent positions close to the principal drives in the eastern half of the cemetery.

Wide tarmac drives sweep south-west and south from the principal entrance, and north-west and north from the south-east entrance to reach the chapels, which are set at the centre of a rond-point. A walk extends north-east from the rond-point on line with the central axis of the chapels, and is terminated to the north-east by a war memorial in the form of a low stone cross. The walk is lined with clipped hollies, and connects with a curvilinear walk which extends parallel to Queen's Road from the principal entrance to the south-east entrance. This walk is lined by impressive late-C19 and early-C20 monuments, with trees and shrubbery screening Queen's Road to the north-east, and further groups of trees and shrubs providing glimpsed views across the cemetery to the south-west. The path layout to the north-east of this walk has been simplified from the formal arrangement shown on the late C19 OS (OS, 1898). The composition of the drives leading from the entrances to the chapels, the rond-point, the axial north-east walk and the curvilinear drives and walks to the north-west, south-east and north-east of the chapels is symmetrical on plan, while the layout of the remainder of the site, to the west and south-west of the chapels, is asymmetrical.

A late C20 garden of remembrance for the interment of cremated remains has been formed to the west of the chapels. From the terrace to the west of the chapels, drives sweep north-west to access the second and third class Anglican burial areas, and south to reach the Roman Catholic and second and third class nonconformist areas. The fourth class burial area extends parallel to the western boundary of the site. While each area is diversified with planting, the number of monuments decreases significantly towards the western boundary of the cemetery. The areas to the north, south and east of the chapels contain a significant collection of late C19 and early-C20 funerary monuments reflecting the prosperity of many families connected with the leading industries of C19 Stoke. These monuments include a group arranged on a triangular lawn with geometrical flower beds and backed by evergreen shrubbery immediately opposite the principal entrance. Here, a cross set on a pedestal commemorates Colin Minton Campbell, MP and Mayor of Stoke (d 1885). Campbell donated £500 towards the laying out of the cemetery and was allowed first choice of burial place (Hartshill Cemetery Walk). Nearby, a tall granite Celtic cross commemorates William Goss (d 1906), manufacturer of the heraldic china which was popularised as souvenirs in the late-C19. Some 200m south of the chapels, a group of Second World War Commonwealth War Graves Commission monuments is enclosed within a privet hedge, while further First World War headstones are located in the south-west corner of the cemetery.

A service yard is situated to the west of Ivy Lodge adjacent to the principal entrance. This yard remains in use and corresponds to that shown on the 1898 OS. The glasshouses shown on the late-C19 OS do not survive in the early-C21.

REFERENCES

The Staffordshire Advertiser, 27 December 1884

The Victoria History of the County of Staffordshire, viii (1963), 174, 197

Pevsner N, The Buildings of England: Staffordshire (1974), 252-3, 261-4

Maps

OS 6' to 1 mile: second edition, revised 1898, published 1900

OS 25' to 1 mile: first edition, surveyed 1877, published 1879; revision of 1922

Archival items

Corporation of Stoke Burial Board Minutes, 1867-81, 1881-93 (City of Stoke-on-Trent Archives)

Stoke Borough Minutes, 1893-5 (City of Stoke-on-Trent Archives)

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION

Harthill Cemetery is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Harthill Cemetery is a good example of a late Victorian public cemetery (1884-85) for a provincial town.

* The design was by the nationally notable landscape design firm Edward Milner and Son and the design was published in HE Milner's book The Art and Practice of Landscape Design (1890).

* The flowing Picturesque and curvilinear layout of the cemetery is unusual for this late date, harking back to designs of the 1840s and 1850s for private cemetery companies.

* The cemetery is dominated by a group of two chapels linked by an arcade designed by the Stoke on Trent architect Charles Lynam, who had an extensive ecclesiastical and municipal practice in the area in the late-C19.

* For its variety of C19 monuments including many C19 Stoke on Trent worthies, particularly the late-C19 and early-C20 monuments.

* The planting is of particular quality, with ornamental shrubbery, principally evergreen species, on artificially raised mounds. These provide visual interest on this gently sloping site, frame vistas of the chapels, and form a background to groups of significant monuments arranged in visually prominent positions close to the principal drives.

* The cemetery layout, much of its planting and structures survive intact, largely in good condition.

Description written: January 2003

Edited: December 2009