Woodvale Cemetery (also known as Parochial Cemetery, Brighton Borough Cemetery, Lewes Road Cemetery)

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 National Heritage List for England (NHLE):

Location, Area, Boundaries, Landform and Setting

A Burial Board cemetery laid out and consecrated in 1857.

Woodvale Cemetery, c 8ha, is located c 1.5km north-east of Brighton town centre, in the county of East Sussex. The triangular-shaped cemetery is bordered to the west by Lewes Road, to the south-west by the gardens of the houses along Shanklin Road, to the south and east by Brighton and Preston Cemetery, and to the north by the Extra-Mural Cemetery. The cemetery is bounded by mid-C19 flint walls along the south, east, and north sides, but the eastern end of the north wall has been demolished. The cemetery is laid out on sloping ground, with higher ground to the north, south, and east, falling to the centre and to the west. There are good views within the site and to the Extra-Mural Cemetery to the north.

Entrances and Approaches

The cemetery is entered from the west through the mid-C19 entrance, with a late-C20 gate, on Lewes Road (A270). From the entrance a drive, between banks planted with a hedge and a line of trees (replanted in the late-C20 after the original trees were damaged or destroyed in the 1987 hurricane), leads east for c 200m to a pair of mid-C19 gothic entrance lodges. On the south side of the drive is a single-storey flint lodge, used as an office, and to the north is a two-storey flint lodge (listed grade II). A C19 gateway with a pair of crocketed spires, built as a memorial to the Marquess of Bristol, stood between the lodges until it was demolished in 1947. From the lodges the drive continues for a further c 200m between high banks into the main part of the cemetery.

The cemetery can also be approached from a mid-C19 entrance on Bear Road to the north. A drive leads south for c 100m between the Extra-Mural Cemetery to the west, and the Brighton and Preston Cemetery to the east, to the main part of Woodvale Cemetery. Since the mid-C20 the cemetery can also be approached from the Extra-Mural Cemetery to the north through several openings in the boundary wall dividing the two cemeteries.

Principal Building

The former mortuary chapels, constructed in 1857, were converted into a crematorium in 1930. The gothic chapels, built in flint with sandstone dressings, stand either side of a tower and spire, with a carriage arch under the tower. The archway was blocked when the crematorium building, which lies behind (east of) the chapels, was constructed. Woodvale Crematorium is listed grade II.

Other Land

The layout of the south and central parts of the cemetery consists of three mid-C19 drives (North, South, and Middle Drives) which run approximately parallel to each other and terminate at the crematorium, which stands at the head of the valley, c 750m south-east of the main entrance. At the point where the entrance drive enters the main part of the cemetery, the drive divides, with the main drive (South Drive) continuing along a terrace for c 350m to the crematorium, and a secondary drive (North Drive) branching off and also leading east. The main drive has a high bank to the south, retained by a low flint wall, with tombs and graves on the grass slope which is backed to the south by a thick boundary shrubbery. On the north side of the drive there is a pavement backed by a hedge, beyond which the ground falls steeply.

The North Drive has a steep grass bank on the north side with graves and tombs between groups of shrubs and scattered trees. One of the tombs on the north side of the North Drive is the tomb of the circus proprietor, John Frederick Ginnett, and other members of the Ginnett family (listed grade II), which stands under a large holly, c 150m west of the crematorium. The tomb has a granite base supporting a Portland stone plinth surmounted by a figure of a pony.

To the north of the North Drive the ground is more open and is laid out with a series of mid-C19 paths which curve from west to east, connected by a straight path which leads up to the Bristol Columbarium, which stands between Woodvale Cemetery and the Extra-Mural Cemetery. This was the original resting place of the Marquess of Bristol, who gave the land for Woodvale Cemetery and part of the land for the Extra-Mural Cemetery, and consists of a gabled gothic stone mausoleum on a cross plan. The Marquess was buried in the mausoleum after his death in 1859 but was later moved by his family to the Hervey estate of Ickworth, Suffolk (qv); the building was later converted into a columbarium.

At the west end of the North Drive, the land falls to the south, but at the east end the ground levels out to the south and the graves are more densely arranged within shrubs and trees. Middle Drive (now a wide path) branches off South Drive c 150m to the east of the division of the South Drive and North Drive. Middle Drive runs along the bottom of the valley and is largely level. A mid C19 path connects the North and Middle Drives, c 100m west of the crematorium. The drive is lined by graves set in lawns finely planted with predominantly evergreen C19 and C20 trees and shrubs, and terminates at a late-C20 garden area to the west of a large turning area in front of the crematorium.

To the east of the crematorium a mid-C19 drive leads east and then turns north to meander through the north-east corner of the cemetery and out to the Bear Road entrance.

Other graves and tombs include the graves commemorating various members of the Wagner family, C19 vicars of Brighton; the graves of the Nye Chart family, managers and owners of the Theatre Royal, Brighton; the tomb of the Clarke family, solicitors and architects; and a tall stone obelisk with a table tomb beside it commemorating the Tilbury-Tarner family.

Maps

• Illustrated Map of Brighton and its Vicinity, 1851 (Local Studies, Brighton Library)
• Treacher's Plan of Brighton, 1866 (Local Studies, Brighton Library)
• Pike and Ivilby, Brighton from Latest Surveys, 1867 (Local Studies, Brighton Library)
• Treacher's New Ordnance Plan of Brighton, nd (Local Studies, Brighton Library)
• OS 25" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1873; 2nd edition published 1898; 1930 edition

Description written: March 2003

Edited: October 2003, March 2022