Description

635-1/0/10256 BUNHILL FIELDS BURIAL GROUND
21-FEB-11 Monument to William Aldridge, South en
closure

GV II
Chest tomb of William Aldridge, c1797

LOCATION: 532673.5, 182228.1

MATERIALS: Portland stone with brick plinth

DESCRIPTION: The monument takes the form of a stone chest with a moulded lid and base, plain corner pilasters and inscription panels. Unusually, the inscriptions run across the pilasters and the panels; those to the north are more legible than those facing south.

HISTORY: William Aldridge (1737-1797) a leading Independent minister of the late C18. Born at Warminster in Wiltshire, he spent a dissipated youth but afterwards devoted himself to preaching. He joined the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion and studied at the latter's college at Trefeca in south Wales between 1768 and 1771. In September 1771 he was sent to preach in Kent, where in spite of local Anglican opposition he was markedly successful, eventually taking charge of a meeting-house in Dover. About 1775 he was sent to supply the Mulberry Garden Chapel in Wapping, where his ministry proved so successful that the large congregation petitioned Lady Huntingdon to allow him to continue as minister. Her refusal led him to leave the Connexion in 1776. He later became minister at the Independent congregation in Jewry Street, London, where he remained until his death.

Bunhill Fields was first enclosed as a burial ground in 1665. Thanks to its location just outside the City boundary, and its independence from any Established place of worship, it became London's principal Nonconformist cemetery, the burial place of John Bunyan, Daniel Defoe, William Blake and other leading religious and intellectual figures. It was closed for burials in 1853, laid out as a public park in 1867, and re-landscaped following war damage by Bridgewater and Shepheard in 1964-5.

SOURCES: Corporation of London, A History of the Bunhill Fields Burial Ground (1902).
A W Light, Bunhill Fields (London, 1915).
A. B. Grosart, 'Aldridge, William (1737-1797)', rev. M. J. Mercer, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/316, accessed 5 Jan 2010]

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The monument to William Aldridge is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* It is a well-preserved late-C18 chest tomb, commemorating an important figure in the religious history of the period, and one with a particularly close connection to Bunhill Fields.
* It is located within the Grade I registered Bunhill Fields Burial Ground (q.v.), and has group value with the other listed tombs in the south enclosure.

Reasons for Listing

DCMS agree- list at Grade II.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q27087459

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)